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<!-- Infobox -->
#REDIRECT [[Helmshore#Textile mills]]
{{Infobox Mill building
| building_name = Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
| native_building_name=
| alternate_names = Higher Mill, Whitakerś Mill
| image = Higher Mill Museum - geograph.org.uk - 694912.jpg
| caption = Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
| textile_type = [[Cotton]] [[Wool]]
| power_source = Water, Steam, Electricity
| altitude =
| building_type = [[Textile manufacturing|Spinning mills]]
| architectural_style = Stone built 3 storey
| structural_system = Stone
| cost =
| employees =
<!-- For titles and maps-- geo info-->
| location =
|location_town= [[Helmshore]], [[Rossendale]], [[Lancashire]]
|location_country= UK
|altitude=
|map_type=Lancashire
|latitude=53.6890
|longitude=-2.3362
| serving_canal =
| serving_railway =
| serving_river = [River Ogden]]
| owner = William Turner
| owner_2 =
| acquisition_date_2 =
| owner_3 =
| acquisition_date_3 =
| owner_4 = Higher Mill Trust
| acquisition_date_4 = 1967
| current_tenants =
| current_owner = [[Lancashire County Council|Lancashire Museums]]
| coordinates =
| start_date = 1789
| completion_date =
| renovation_date =
| re-equiptment_date_2=
| re-equiptment_date_3=
| change_of_use_date = 1979
| demolition_date =
| destruction_date =
<!-- Dimensions-->
| height =
| other_dimensions =
| floor_count = 3
| floor_area =
| floor_height =
| floor_usage =
| floor_construction = Pine
<!-- The building team -->
| main_contractor =
| architect =
| architecture_firm =
| structural_engineer =
| other_designers =
| awards =
| ren_architect =
| ren_firm =
| ren_oth_designers =
| ren_qty_surveyor =
| ren_awards =
<!-- Steam powered-->
| engine_date =
| engine_decommissioned =
| engine_maker =
| engine_type =
| engine_valve =
| engine_throw =
| engine_rpm =
| engine_kWatt =
| engine_hp =
| engine_fly_diameter =
| transmission_type =
| no_of_ropes =
| boilers =
| boiler_temperature =
| psi =
<!-- Watermills -->
| wheels = 2 Pitch back
| diameter_of_water_wheel =
| width_of_wheel =
| wheel_rpm =
<!-- Equipment-->
| equipment_maker =
| date_of_equipping =
| no_of_looms =
| cotton_count = 20
| scutchers =
| carding_engines =
| doublers = 1
| kiers =
| other_equipment =
| mule_frames = 4 per floor, Taylor, Lang &^Co Ltd, Stalybridge
| ring_frames =
<!-- References-->
| references =
}}

<!-- Lead -->
'''Helmshore Mills''' are two mills built on the River Ogden in [[Helmshore]], [[Lancashire]]. Higher Mill was built in 1796 for William Turner, and Whitaker Mill was built later by the then owner ??? Whitaker. In its early life it alternated between working wool and cotton. By 1920 it was working shoddy as a Condensor mule mill and that equipment has been preserved and is still used.Though closed in 1967 it was taken over by the Higher Mills Trust, whose trustees included [[Chris Aspin]], the historian and author and [[Rhodes Boyson|Dr Rhodes Boyson]] who maintained it as a museum. It is open for visitors and does a [[carding]], and [[mule spinning]] demonstrations.

== Location ==
Helmshore Mills lies within Helmshore, a village in the [[Rossendale Valley]], [[Lancashire]], [[England]]. It is situated {{convert|2|miles|km}} south of [[Haslingden]], broadly between the A56 and the B6235, approximately {{convert|16| miles|km}} north of [[Manchester]], and {{convert|3|miles|km}} from the [[ M65 motorway]]. Helmshore straddles the the [[River Ogden]] a tributary of the [[River Irwell]] . The village developed around the 7 [[List of mills in Lancashire#Haslingden and Helmshore|cotton and wool mills]], .

== History ==
Before the mills were built, the Turner family had been involved in textiles. Three of the six brothers made their living from wool in [[Martholme]] and three from cotton in [[Blackburn]]. In 1789 the brothers built '''Higher Mill''' on a green field site in the parish of [[Musbury]] as a [[woollen]] [[fulling mill]] but the cotton brothers soon dropped out of the enterprise. It was the son of one of these original six, a William Turner (1793-1852) who built the larger mill in the 1820s. This was a wool carding , spinning and weaving mill. Some of the cloth would have gone to the fulling mill next door. Turner instructed in his will that the mill should be sold on his death, which occured in 1852. This mill was destroyed by fire in 1857, and was rebuilt in 1860. It switched between wool and cotton several times. In the 1920s, the mill was bought by [[L.Whitaker & Sons]] who installed [[cotton condensing equipment]] and the mill continued in that business until Christmas 1978. Higher Mill came to operated by [[Lawrence Whittaker]] in 1875 still using Turners machinery, and his descendants continued to run it as a fulling mill until June 1967. The two families may have been distantly related but by 1920s the Whittakers were a well known local family while the firm of L.Whitaker
& Sons no longer had any Whitakers working for them. The freehold of both mills in the Helmshore Mills Estate was bought by Lawrence Whittakers family.<ref name=StW/>

;The Museum
When Rossall Whittaker died leaving no male heirs the''' Higher Mill''' was saved by local enthusiasts who recognised its significance and had it scheduled as an [[Ancient Monument]], and through a trust bought it. [[Platt International]], whose site was also in Helmshore, owned a significant collection of historic textile machines and agreed that they should be located in Higher Mill. The task of running a museum and maintaining the buildings put pressure on the trust, so in 1975 [[Lancashire County Council]] stepped in taking a 99 year lease.''' Whitaker's mill''' became vacant in 1976 and Lancashire County Council saw the advantages of having control of the two mills and bought the Condensor mill. This allowed them to also purchase the Platt collection in 1985, keeping the site intact and forming a comprehensive museum of the Lancashire Textile industry.<ref name=StW> Spinning the Web.</ref>

<!--
== The mills ==
=== Architecture ===
The mill was of four storey construction, with a large single storey weaving shed. After the fire in 1918 it was remodelled into a single storey building, space being taken from the weaving sheds for a new preparation area. On closure in 1982 it was reconfigured by Burnley Council, the weaving shed was partitioned, about a third being used for rentable industrial units, and a similar area being used for visitor facilities. The {{convert|37|m|ft}} chimney and the 60m X 25m lodge lay to the south. The boiler house, the engine house and chimney are [[Scheduled Ancient Monuments]].<ref name="QSMLeaflet¨>{{cite news|title=Queen Street Mill Textile Museum|date=2011|publisher=Lancashire County Council|accessdate=19 March 2011}}</ref>

As originally built the weaving shed was about {{convert|170|m |ft}}by {{convert|160|m|ft}}, with the typical north facing roof lights (windows) giving natural light, the shed housed 990 looms. On the Queen Street side was the boiler room and engine house, and the four storey warehouse. The ground floor was the weft department, the first floor was offices, the cloth warehouse and temporary storage beams, the second floor was the winding and beaming department for beaming and drawing in, and the third floor was the preparation department for tape sizing. After the fire the ground floor of the frontage was rebuilt and used for winding and preparation, 100 looms were removed and part of the Harrison Street end of the shed became the new warehouse. Rowland Kippax who worked there however reported "''there were now 1040 looms, there were nine tacklers looking after 130 looms each''".<ref name="Kippax">{{cite news|url=http://www.briercliffesociety.co.uk/ThOwd%20Syker/Flourishing%20Mills.htm|title=Village had eleven flourishing mills|last=Kippax|first=Rowland|date=Tuesday 1st August 1978|work=Briercliffe Society|publisher=Burnley Express|accessdate=22 March 2011|location=Burnley, Lancashire}}</ref>

[[File:Weaving shed, Queen Street Mill - geograph.org.uk - 680867.jpg|thumb]]

=== Power ===
Steam is raised by two [[Lancashire boiler]]s built by Tinker, Shenton & Co, [[Hyde]]. The first was installed in 1894, and the second in 1901, when a 120 tube Greens Economiser was fitted<ref name=QSMComment>Date uncertain, the current Economiser dates from 1934. </ref>. Now feed water is supplied by a Weir pump fitted in 1956, Both boilers were stoked manually, though secondhand Proctor[[automatic stoker]]s were fitted in 1962. Boiler No.1 had the Shovel type and the coking type were fitted to No.2 Today the manually stoked 1901 boiler is the only one used. <ref name="ETWeb">{{cite web|url=http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=957|title=Engineering Timelines-Queen Street Mill|last=Dunkerley|first=Paul|date=2008|publisher=Engineering Timelines reg. charity no. 1128041 |accessdate=26 March 2011|location=London}}</ref>[[Coal]] was obtained locally from Bank Hall Pit but now with pollution controls being stricter it has to be imported. At its peak it burnt 6 tonnes a day, but now uses only 10 tonnes a month. The steam raised to 100psi in the boiler house, drives the original tandem compound horizontal [[stationary steam engine]]. The high pressure cylinder (HP) is {{convert|16|in|cm}} and the low pressure (LP) {{convert|32|in|cm}}. It uses Corliss valves. The engine drives a {{convert|14|ft|m}} flywheel running at 68 rpm. The {{convert|500|hp|kW}} engine was built and installed by William Roberts of Nelson in 1895.<ref name=A82>{{Harvnb|Ashmore|1982|p=190}}</ref>. It has never been moved from this location and runs perfectly true. Power is taken from the crankshaft by a series of directly driven [[line shaft]]s. <ref name="QSMNotes">{{cite news|title=The last remaining steam powered mill in the world|date=2011|publisher=Lancashire County Council|accessdate=19 March 2011}}</ref>
<gallery>
File:Queen Street Mill - Boiler House - geograph.org.uk - 528568.jpg| Lancashire Boiler
File:Queen Street Mill - Boiler House - geograph.org.uk - 528569.jpg| Lancashire Boiler with feeders
File:Queen Street Mill - Engine 'Peace' - geograph.org.uk - 531476.jpg| Peace, a tandem compound
File:Queen Street Mill - Engine House - geograph.org.uk - 528573.jpg| Looking towards the flywheel.
</gallery>

=== Equipment ===
The glory of this mill is its completeness. When yarn enters a weaving mill, it is on different size cops and cheeses, and these had to be wound onto pirns to fit in the shuttles used by the looms installed. The equipment is here and used. For the weft, there are two remaining banks of pirn winders manned by one operative.<ref name="QSMNotes"/>

The warp needs to be taken from a 300 bobbins on V shaped frame and wound onto a beam. Four or five beams are merged to make the 2000 end beam that is needed, and they are placed in the Cylinder Tape Sizing Machine. The threads pass through the size to stiffen them and reduce friction. The size is a mixture of flour soft soap and tallow: specific to this mill. They are dried over steam heated cylinders and wound onto the final beam, the weavers beam.

The weavers beam is now placed on the Drawing-in frame. Here each end is passed through the healds, and then through a reed. This job was done by a Reacher-in and a Loomer. The Reacher-in who would be young and usually a boy would pass each end in order to the Loomer. The mill still has two Drawing in frames. Alternatively, if the loom had already run that cloth, a short length of warp thread could be left on the healds and reed, and a Barber Colman knotter could tie in warp threads to the new beam. This process took 20 mintues, considerably faster than starting afresh. Spare healds and reeds are stored above head height for that purpose.<ref name="QSMNotes"/>

The loomed weavers beam would be taken into the weaving shed. One weaver would tenter 6, or 8 Lancashire Looms, which would be kept working by a Tackler. Today there are 308 looms from 1894 built by Pemberton, or Harling & Todd of Burnley. These would require 65- 80 weavers and 3 tacklers. At it's peak there were 990 looms. All of these are driven by overhead line shafts.<ref name="QSMNotes"/>
<gallery>
File:Queen Street Mill - Pirn Winding Machine - geograph.org.uk - 528574.jpg| Pirning
File:Queen Street Mill - Beaming Frame - geograph.org.uk - 531481.jpg| Bobbins for Beaming frame
File:Queen Street Mill - Cylinder Sizing Machine - geograph.org.uk - 528575.jpg| Cylinder Sizer
File:Queen Street Mill - Drawing in or Looming Frame - geograph.org.uk - 528577.jpg| Drawing-in frame
</gallery>

===Later extensions===

==Usage==
===Owners===
===Tenants===

-->

==Condenser spinning==
{{Condenser spinning flowchart}}
Fine spinning produced a lot of waste so naturally this was recycled. This waste was the raw material of a condensor spinning mill. It came in three forms, loose staple, unspun rovings and spun thread (hard waste)that had been pirned but rejected. No matter its source it had to be devilled (broken down) to staple, then scutched and carded in the normal way. After these processes the staple was very short, and the processing of the lap was different-a Derby Doubler was used to mix slivers into sliver lap. A notable feature of the mule was that the rovings weren't on individual bobbins but on a beam. As the fine spinning of cotton contracted so did the need for condensing.

==Boilers and Chimney==
When the [[stationary steam engine|steam engine]] was put in Whitaker's mill, [[Lancashire boiler]]s were ubiquitous. For maximum efficiency they required air to be drawn over the coals, and this was the function of the [[mill chimney]]. As these mills are set in a valley the air flow was irregular so the chimney was built in the hill opposite and the flue passed over the river and underground to reach the chimney. This provided the required updraught.

==Water==
Clean water was needed for processing the clothe. This was captured from field drainage on the hillside opposite and stored in a [[mill pond|lodge]] on the farther side of the river, piped across when required.. The [[Water wheel]], and later the engine condenser could use the then highly polluted water from the River Ogden, a [[weir]] was placed 800m upstream and the water diverted into a long canal like lodge that finished at the mill. Having passes over the pitch-back wheel the water passed through a culverted tail [[goyt]] back into the Ogden.

==Museum Exhibits==
The museum divides its collections into three themed areas. representing the [[wool]] story, the [[cotton]] story and the [[spinning mule|spinning floor]].
;The wool story
This shows the [[water wheel]] and [[fulling|fulling stock]]s and clay pots used to collect [[urine]] from the local cottages, that produced the [[ammonia]] needed for fulling. It goes on to show the later box system. There is a [[tenterhook|tenter frame]], with the [[tenterhook]]s to show how the cloth was dried with out shrinking and how [[teasle]]s were used to lift up the [[Nap (textile)|nap]]. This was of course later mechanised and there is a teasle holding frame.
;The cotton story
This illustrates firstly the hand weavers cottage, with a [[loom|frame loom]] with a hand thrown [[shuttle]], mannikins represent the weaver and two women spinning the yarn on different types of [[spinning wheel|wheel]], a child is shown hand [[carding]]. It is here we see a 16 spindle [[spinning jenny]] that would have dated from about 1760, and a 50 spindle improved jenny. There is a replica of [[Arkwright]]s first [[carding machine]].There is a complete sequence of machines that would have taken the bolls from the bales, [[opener]], [[scutching|scutcher]], [[breaker card]], [[finisher card]], [[draw frame]] and finally a [[waterframe]]. Sharing the floor at Whitaker's Mill is the equipment needed to prepare the waste cotton for the cards in the room above. There is a [[single cylinder pisker]] for soft waste and a [[six cylinder devil]] for the hard waste.
;The spinning floor
This was one of two at this mill and has all the equipment to breaker card the [[shoddy]] (recycled cotton) and to finisher card the [[sliver]]s into [[roving]]s, these go onto the 714 spindle [[Taylor, Lang & Co|Taylor Lang]] [[Mule spinning|spinning mules]]. Opening, scutching and mixing happened on the floor below.

==Media==
* North and South, BBC version <ref name=BBC>[http://www.richardarmitagenet.com/nsloc.html North and South, Mrs Gaskell], Richard Armitage </ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Lancashire}}
*[[Textile manufacturing]]
*[[Cotton Mill]]
*[[Queen Street Mill]]
{{spinning}}
{{Lancashire Cotton}}
{{Textile museums}}
==References==
;Notes
{{reflist}}
;Bibliography
{{Refbegin}}

*{{cite book|last=Ashmore|first=Owen|title=The industrial archaelogy of North-west England|publisher=Manchester University Press|year=1982|ref=harv|url=http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pXa7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA212&lpg=PA212&dq=room+and+power+mills&source=bl&ots=BEQsI2NGfL&sig=ZJP7OYVvFZbOQUA7x7J7FtNagtw&hl=en&ei=M0hPSve3I4O6jAfxubioCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11|isbn=0719008204|accessdate=2009-06-25|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book|last=Catling|first=Harold|title=The Spinning Mule|publisher=The Lancashire Library|location=Preston|year=1986|isbn=0902228617|language=English|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book|last=Chapman|first=S.J.|title=The Lancashire Cotton Industry, A Study in Economic Development.|ref=harv|publisher=Manchester|year=1904|accessdate=2009-05-26|language=English}}

*{{cite web|url=http://www.spinningtheweb.org.uk/m_display.php?irn=4&sub=rural&theme=places&crumb=Helmshore+Mill|title=Helmshore Mills|last=Gibson|first=Ian|coauthors=Green|date=2011|work=Spinning the Web|publisher=Manchester City Council|accessdate=17 May 2011}}

*{{cite book|last=Haynes|first=Ian|title=Cotton in Ashton|publisher=Libraries and Arts Committee, Tameside Metropolitan Borough|date=1987|isbn=0-904 506-14-2|ref=harv|accessdate=2009-09}}

*{{cite book|last=Hills|first= Richard Leslie|title=Power from Steam: A History of the Stationary Steam Engine |publisher=Cambridge University Press, |date=1993 |pages=244|isbn= ISBN 052145834X, 9780521458344|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=t6TLOQBhd0YC|ref=harv|accessdate=January 2009}}

*{{cite book|last=Nasmith|first=Joseph|title=Recent Cotton Mill Construction and Engineering|publisher=John Heywood|location=London|year=1895|isbn=1-4021-4558-6|url=http://www.archive.org/stream/recentcottonmill00nasm/recentcottonmill00nasm_djvu.txt|accessdate=March 2009|ref=harv}}

*{{cite book|last=Nasmith|first=Joseph|title=Students Cotton Spinning |publisher=John Heywood|location=London|year=1896|accessdate=March 2011|ref=harv}}

*{{citation |url=http://oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/forum_topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7926&FORUM_ID=99&CAT_ID=3&Forum_Title=Rare+Text+(Book+Transcriptions)&Topic_Title=ARTHUR+ROBERTS+ENGINE+LIST&whichpage=1&tmp=1#pid81483|title= Arthur Robert's Engine List|publisher=One guy from Barlick-Book Transcription|last=Roberts|first=A S|year=1921|work=Arthur Roberts Black Book.|ref=harv|accessdate=2009-01-11}}


{{Refend}}

== External Links==
{{Commons category|Helmshore Mills Textile Museum}}
* [http://www.lancashire.gov.uk Lancashire Museums] Website
<!--* [http://www.cottontown.org/ www.cottontown.org]
* [http://www.spinningtheweb.org.uk www.spinningtheweb.org.uk] -->
[[Category:Textile mills in Lancashire]]
[[Category:Rossendale]]
[[Category:Museums in Lancashire]]
[[Category:Textile museums in the United Kingdom]]

[[Category:Museums in Lancashire]]
[[Category:Museums in Lancashire]]
[[Category:Textile museums in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Textile museums in the United Kingdom]]

Revision as of 10:29, 24 February 2012

Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum is located in Lancashire
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
Location within Lancashire
Cotton Wool
Alternative namesHigher Mill, Whitakerś Mill
Spinning mills
Architectural styleStone built 3 storey
Structural systemStone
OwnerWilliam Turner
Further ownership
  • Higher Mill Trust (1967)
Current ownersLancashire Museums
Construction
Built1789
Floor count3
Water Power
Wheels2 Pitch back
Equipment
Cotton count20
Mule Frames4 per floor, Taylor, Lang &^Co Ltd, Stalybridge
Doublers1

Helmshore Mills are two mills built on the River Ogden in Helmshore, Lancashire. Higher Mill was built in 1796 for William Turner, and Whitaker Mill was built later by the then owner ??? Whitaker. In its early life it alternated between working wool and cotton. By 1920 it was working shoddy as a Condensor mule mill and that equipment has been preserved and is still used.Though closed in 1967 it was taken over by the Higher Mills Trust, whose trustees included Chris Aspin, the historian and author and Dr Rhodes Boyson who maintained it as a museum. It is open for visitors and does a carding, and mule spinning demonstrations.

Location

Helmshore Mills lies within Helmshore, a village in the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire, England. It is situated 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Haslingden, broadly between the A56 and the B6235, approximately 16 miles (26 km) north of Manchester, and 3 miles (4.8 km) from the M65 motorway. Helmshore straddles the the River Ogden a tributary of the River Irwell . The village developed around the 7 cotton and wool mills, .

History

Before the mills were built, the Turner family had been involved in textiles. Three of the six brothers made their living from wool in Martholme and three from cotton in Blackburn. In 1789 the brothers built Higher Mill on a green field site in the parish of Musbury as a woollen fulling mill but the cotton brothers soon dropped out of the enterprise. It was the son of one of these original six, a William Turner (1793-1852) who built the larger mill in the 1820s. This was a wool carding , spinning and weaving mill. Some of the cloth would have gone to the fulling mill next door. Turner instructed in his will that the mill should be sold on his death, which occured in 1852. This mill was destroyed by fire in 1857, and was rebuilt in 1860. It switched between wool and cotton several times. In the 1920s, the mill was bought by L.Whitaker & Sons who installed cotton condensing equipment and the mill continued in that business until Christmas 1978. Higher Mill came to operated by Lawrence Whittaker in 1875 still using Turners machinery, and his descendants continued to run it as a fulling mill until June 1967. The two families may have been distantly related but by 1920s the Whittakers were a well known local family while the firm of L.Whitaker & Sons no longer had any Whitakers working for them. The freehold of both mills in the Helmshore Mills Estate was bought by Lawrence Whittakers family.[1]

The Museum

When Rossall Whittaker died leaving no male heirs the Higher Mill was saved by local enthusiasts who recognised its significance and had it scheduled as an Ancient Monument, and through a trust bought it. Platt International, whose site was also in Helmshore, owned a significant collection of historic textile machines and agreed that they should be located in Higher Mill. The task of running a museum and maintaining the buildings put pressure on the trust, so in 1975 Lancashire County Council stepped in taking a 99 year lease. Whitaker's mill became vacant in 1976 and Lancashire County Council saw the advantages of having control of the two mills and bought the Condensor mill. This allowed them to also purchase the Platt collection in 1985, keeping the site intact and forming a comprehensive museum of the Lancashire Textile industry.[1]


Condenser spinning

Template:Condenser spinning flowchart Fine spinning produced a lot of waste so naturally this was recycled. This waste was the raw material of a condensor spinning mill. It came in three forms, loose staple, unspun rovings and spun thread (hard waste)that had been pirned but rejected. No matter its source it had to be devilled (broken down) to staple, then scutched and carded in the normal way. After these processes the staple was very short, and the processing of the lap was different-a Derby Doubler was used to mix slivers into sliver lap. A notable feature of the mule was that the rovings weren't on individual bobbins but on a beam. As the fine spinning of cotton contracted so did the need for condensing.

Boilers and Chimney

When the steam engine was put in Whitaker's mill, Lancashire boilers were ubiquitous. For maximum efficiency they required air to be drawn over the coals, and this was the function of the mill chimney. As these mills are set in a valley the air flow was irregular so the chimney was built in the hill opposite and the flue passed over the river and underground to reach the chimney. This provided the required updraught.

Water

Clean water was needed for processing the clothe. This was captured from field drainage on the hillside opposite and stored in a lodge on the farther side of the river, piped across when required.. The Water wheel, and later the engine condenser could use the then highly polluted water from the River Ogden, a weir was placed 800m upstream and the water diverted into a long canal like lodge that finished at the mill. Having passes over the pitch-back wheel the water passed through a culverted tail goyt back into the Ogden.

Museum Exhibits

The museum divides its collections into three themed areas. representing the wool story, the cotton story and the spinning floor.

The wool story

This shows the water wheel and fulling stocks and clay pots used to collect urine from the local cottages, that produced the ammonia needed for fulling. It goes on to show the later box system. There is a tenter frame, with the tenterhooks to show how the cloth was dried with out shrinking and how teasles were used to lift up the nap. This was of course later mechanised and there is a teasle holding frame.

The cotton story

This illustrates firstly the hand weavers cottage, with a frame loom with a hand thrown shuttle, mannikins represent the weaver and two women spinning the yarn on different types of wheel, a child is shown hand carding. It is here we see a 16 spindle spinning jenny that would have dated from about 1760, and a 50 spindle improved jenny. There is a replica of Arkwrights first carding machine.There is a complete sequence of machines that would have taken the bolls from the bales, opener, scutcher, breaker card, finisher card, draw frame and finally a waterframe. Sharing the floor at Whitaker's Mill is the equipment needed to prepare the waste cotton for the cards in the room above. There is a single cylinder pisker for soft waste and a six cylinder devil for the hard waste.

The spinning floor

This was one of two at this mill and has all the equipment to breaker card the shoddy (recycled cotton) and to finisher card the slivers into rovings, these go onto the 714 spindle Taylor Lang spinning mules. Opening, scutching and mixing happened on the floor below.

Media

  • North and South, BBC version [2]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ a b Spinning the Web.
  2. ^ North and South, Mrs Gaskell, Richard Armitage
Bibliography
  • Ashmore, Owen (1982). The industrial archaelogy of North-west England. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719008204. Retrieved 2009-06-25. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Chapman, S.J. (1904). The Lancashire Cotton Industry, A Study in Economic Development. Manchester. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Gibson, Ian (2011). "Helmshore Mills". Spinning the Web. Manchester City Council. Retrieved 17 May 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Haynes, Ian (1987). Cotton in Ashton. Libraries and Arts Committee, Tameside Metropolitan Borough. ISBN 0-904 506-14-2. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Nasmith, Joseph (1896). Students Cotton Spinning. London: John Heywood. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)


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