Tuesday 8 October 2013

Tardy Gate Mill




(Picture coming soon)





Tardy Gate Mill on Coote Lane was built in 1908 by the Tardy Gate Manufacturing Company it was bought out and greatly expanded by Thomas Moss & Sons in 1920 and produced calico and linen until its demise in the late 1970s. The mill also owned the local cricket pitch and sponsored the cricket team. There was also a Ladies' hockey team for many years that was originally made up mainly of workers from the weaving sheds and offices

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Bamber Bridge Spinning & Weaving Company Mill


History
Opened in 1907, this was perhaps the most spectacular of the local mills, and with
135,000 spindles it was one of the largest in the Preston district. Though the great
tapering chimney is long gone, the spectacular mill engine house (3000hp) survives at the
rear of this essentially modern steel-framed building. The mill’s closure was announced in
1959.
Top of the tower, all that remains of Orr's Mill, School Lane. This was originally the top part of the tower of the Bamber Bridge Spinning & Weaving Company mill, Wesley Street. A similar dome had adorned Orr's mill.

But all of is now being demolished and now only stands is the tower were the dome used to be on. Since the rest of the building is going, the demolistion has been put on hold until they remove the arials on it.

Queens Street Mill


History
The Queen Street Mill Manufacturing Company was established in 1894, capitalised with ₤20,000 in £5 shares.

The company built the Queen Street Mill between 1894 and 1895. As money was scarce only one Lancashire boiler was installed, and it was six years before the second was bought. The weaving shed was single storey, and the mill frontage was three storey. All the looms were bought from Burnley companies, Pemberton and Harling & Todd, and have not been replaced. The mill was originally equipped with 900 single shuttle Lancashire looms capable of producing grey cloth.

Tulketh Road Mill


History
The factory was built in 1905 during Preston’s last boom years as a mill town. Preston’s biggest mills were built during this time, another significant building being Horrocks’s mill on New Hall Lane.

Tulketh was one of Lancashire’s biggest spinning mills at the time. In those days the mill was surrounded by fields. The opening of such a huge mill was a sign of optimism at the time, but it in fact heralded the beginning of end of Preston as a mill town

Working Conditions
In those days, male and female employees at Tulketh Mill usually had different jobs. Work in the cotton room, the blowing room and operating the carding machinery was generally done by men. This was mainly because this work was physical, dirty and sometimes dangerous. Men also did the mule spinning, which was hot, dirty and humid.