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Midland Mills is a former flax mill on Silver Street in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, in the Holbeck Urban Village regeneration area. Since the 1980s it has been used for light industrial work.
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Midland Mills is a former flax mill on Silver Street in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, in the Holbeck Urban Village regeneration area. Since the 1980s it has been used for light industrial work.
John Jubb built the first mill on the site in 1793 but sold his business and mill in the early 19th century. The new owner took advantage of the expansion of the flax spinning industry in the Holbeck area by diversifying into the manufacture of textile machinery. This machinery was sold to local and national mills, including the mills of Leeds entrepreneur Benjamin Gott. The mills changed ownership a few years later when the owners moved to premises on Meadow Lane, selling the Midland Mills site to the Drabble Brothers who were in the employment of John Marshall at the same time as Matthew Murray. Drabble Brothers continued to manufacture textile machinery and also patented designs for cart axles until a disagreement between the two brothers saw their firm go bankrupt in 1812.
Taylor and Wordsworth, two employees of the Drabble brothers, bought the site in 1812 and established Taylor, Wordsworth and Co. By the early 1850s both Taylor and Wordsworth had died but the company continued to trade under the same name but under new management. In the 1930s Platts bought the factory, Platts soon became the largest textile machine-makers in the world, employing over 15,000 people. Unfortunately the economic turbulence of the 1980s caused recession and the decline of manufacturing in the UK. The factory ceased trading in 1981 and Platts followed in 1982. The closure of Midland Mills marked the end of the textile industry in Leeds.
Since 1981 Midland Mills has been divided into industrial units. Most of these have been used for light industrial work. Midland Mills is situated in the Holbeck Urban Village regeneration area.
Samuel Slater was an early English-American industrialist known as the "Father of the American Industrial Revolution" and the "Father of the American Factory System". In the UK, he was called "Slater the Traitor" and "Sam the Slate" because he brought British textile technology to the United States, modifying it for American use. He stole the textile factory machinery designs as an apprentice to a pioneer in the British industry before migrating to the United States at the age of 21. He designed the first textile mills in the U.S. and later went into business for himself, developing a family business with his sons. He eventually owned thirteen spinning mills and had developed tenant farms and company towns around his textile mills, such as Slatersville, Rhode Island.
Ancoats is an area of Manchester in North West England, next to the Northern Quarter, the northern part of Manchester city centre.
Matthew Murray was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder Salamanca in 1812. He was an innovative designer in many fields, including steam engines, machine tools and machinery for the textile industry.
Holbeck is an inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It begins on the southern edge of Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 postcode district. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is the only motorway that passes through the area since the end of the M1 moved to Hook Moor near Aberford. Since large parts of Holbeck have been vacated in preparation for the regeneration of the area, the district has in large parts suffered from a population exodus. Holbeck had a population of 5,505 in 2011. The district currently falls within the Beeston and Holbeck ward of Leeds City Council.
John Marshall was a British businessman and politician from Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
Temple Works is a former flax mill in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was designed by the engineer James Coombe a former pupil of John Rennie; the painter David Roberts; and the architect Joseph Bonomi the Younger. It was built in the Egyptian Revival style for the industrialist John Marshall between 1836 and 1840 to contain a 240 horsepower double-beam engine by Benjamin Hick. Temple Works is the only Grade I listed building in Holbeck.
Marshall's Mill is a former flax spinning mill on Marshall Street in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
The Round Foundry is a former engineering works off Water Lane in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Founded in the late 18th century, the building was developed into the Round Foundry Media Centre in 2005.
Tower Works is a former factory notable for its three listed towers. It is located on Globe Road in Holbeck, Leeds, West Yorkshire, next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The Italianate towers of the factory are a distinctive landmark on the Leeds skyline.
Platt Brothers, also known as Platt Bros & Co Ltd, was a British company based at Werneth in Oldham, North West England. The company manufactured textile machinery and were iron founders and colliery proprietors. By the end of the 19th century, the company had become the largest textile machinery manufacturer in the world, employing more than 12,000 workers.
Holbeck Urban Village is an area of Leeds city centre, close to Leeds railway station that has been undergoing a period of urban renewal.
Trencherfield Mill is a cotton spinning mill standing next to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It was built in 1907. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. The mill was driven by a 2,500 hp triple-expansion four-cylinder engine built by J & E Wood of Bolton in 1907. The two halves of the engine were called Rina and Helen. They drove a 26-foot flywheel with 54 ropes at 68 rpm. The engine was stopped in 1968. The mill is now part of the Wigan Pier redevelopment area and is used for other purposes.
Mather & Platt is the name of several large engineering firms in Europe, South Africa and Asia that are subsidiaries of Wilo SE, Germany or were founded by former employees. The original company was founded in the Newton Heath area of Manchester, England, where it was a major employer. That firm continues as a food processing and packaging business, trading as M & P Engineering in Trafford Park, Manchester.
Ever since its early days Hunslet has been the 'Workshop of Leeds'. Although from the Industrial Revolution onwards there have been other areas in Leeds to have a large industrial base, such as Holbeck, Armley, Kirkstall and Harehills, none so much as Hunslet. Like neighbouring Holbeck, Hunslet benefited from its close proximity with the River Aire, Leeds city centre, coal mining communities to the south, extensive railways and some of Leeds' best infrastructure. From the 1960s onwards the motorways would also drive industry and commerce in Hunslet.
In the recession of the 1930s, Platt Brothers, Howard and Bullough, Brooks and Doxey, Asa Lees, Dobson and Barlow, Joseph Hibbert, John Hetherington and Tweedales and Smalley merged to become Textile Machinery Makers Ltd., but the individual units continued to trade under their own names until 1970, when they were rationalised into one company called Platt UK Ltd. In 1991 the company name changed to Platt Saco Lowell. The Globe works closed in 1993.
Asa Lees was a firm of textile machine manufacturers in Oldham, Lancashire. Their headquarters was the Soho Iron Works, Greenacres. It was second only in size to Platt Brothers.
Harp Mill was a former cotton spinning mill in the Castleton, Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. Queensway, Castleton was a hub of cotton mills including the three 't', Th'Arrow, Th'Harp, and Th'Ensor. The 1908 Castleton map includes: Marland Cotton Mill, Castleton Cotton Mill, Globe Works, Arrow Cotton Mill, Harp Cotton Mill, Globe Leather Works, Castleton Size Works and Castleton Iron Works. Th'Harp was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. The site now houses industrial units.
Taylor Wordsworth and Co was one of the leading producers of machinery for the flax, wool and worsted industries in Leeds, Yorkshire during the British Industrial Revolution. It was established in 1812 and survived until it was taken over in the 1930s.
The Nottingham Industrial Museum is a volunteer-run museum situated in part of the 17th-century stables block of Wollaton Hall, located in a suburb of the city of Nottingham. The museum won the Nottinghamshire Heritage Site of the Year Award 2012, a local accolade issued by Experience Nottinghamshire. The Museum collection closed in 2009 after Nottingham City Council withdrew funding, but has since reopened at weekends and bank holidays, helped by a £91,000 government grant, and run by volunteers. The museum contains a display of local textiles machinery, transport, telecommunications, mining and engineering technology. There is a display of cycles, motorcycles, and motor cars. There are examples of significant lace-making machinery. It also houses an operational beam engine, from the Basford, Nottingham pumping station.
Seth Bemis was an American entrepreneur, active along the Charles River in the early Industrial Revolution. It is claimed that he was the first to manufacture cotton duck cloth. He was also father to attorney George Bemis.