 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Clothing |
| Founded | 1770s |
| Founders | John Paton James Baldwin |
| Defunct | 1961 |
| Fate | Merged |
| Successor | Coats plc |
| Products | Yarn |
Patons and Baldwins was a leading British manufacturer of knitting yarn. It was an original constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange.
The business began as two separate companies: J & J Baldwin and Partners, founded in the late 1770s by James Baldwin of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, and John Paton Son and Co., founded in 1814 by John Paton of Alloa, Scotland. [1] Both men had formed their businesses using the spinning mule developed by Samuel Crompton. They mainly produced yarns for commercial knitting machines.
The Paton family were regarded as generous benefactors in the town of Alloa, where they provided funding for a significant range of public building projects, including Alloa Town Hall, public libraries, a school, a swimming pool, and a gymnasium.
The two companies merged in 1920 and diversified into producing wool for home knitters, as well as publishing knitting patterns under the "Patons Rose" and "Baldwins Beehive" trademarks.
By the mid-1930s, the company had establishments across Scotland and Northern England, including factories at Billingham and Jarrow, as well as in Canada, New Zealand, and a large factory in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. The company branched out into various related lines of business, including the running of an angora rabbit farm in Staffordshire between 1932 and 1934, [2] and the development of new products such as nylon and Terylene. [1]
In 1951, the headquarters of the business was relocated from Spring Hall, Halifax to a 140-acre site in Darlington, County Durham, where a single-storey factory employing 4,000 people was developed at a cost of £7.5 million. [1] The factory had its own railway sidings and produced 113 tons of yarn every week. [3]
In 1961, the company was merged with J & P Coats Ltd. The Patons trademark is still in use today. [4] Ownership passed from Coats plc to Mez Crafts and then in 2020 to DMC. [5]
The yarn production facility at Alloa was closed in 1999. [6] The bulk of the surviving business records from the Alloa operation, together with some material from other factories, is now held by Clackmannanshire Archives in Alloa. [7]
The large factory in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, a 35-acre site, employed over 2,000 people in the 1960s. By 1982 the factory employed 604 people. The business was sold in the late 1980s; it passed through several owners until 1995 when it produced its last bail of yarn. The factory closed on 31 July 1997. [8] [9] In Australia the Patons brand is manufactured by Wangaratta Woollen Mills in Victoria, and has been a heritage Australian brand since 1923.
The factory in Tasmania operated the Patons & Baldwins Soccer Club, a football club that played in the local Northern Premier League. The club was state champion in 1926 [10] and 1930, and won the Northern Premier League 10 times between 1925 and 1958. It was closed in the early 1960s.
Clackmannanshire, or the County of Clackmannan, is a historic county, council area, registration county and lieutenancy area in Scotland, bordering the council areas of Stirling, Fife, and Perth and Kinross. In terms of historic counties it borders Perthshire, Stirlingshire and Fife.
Launceston is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, the Launceston urban area has a population of 90,953. Launceston is the second most populous city in Tasmania after the state capital, Hobart. As of 2020, Launceston is the 18th largest city in Australia. Launceston is the fifth-largest inland city and the ninth-largest non-capital city in Australia. Launceston is regarded as the most livable regional city, and was one of the most popular regional cities to move to in Australia from 2020 to 2021. Launceston was named Australian Town of the Year in 2022.
Alloa is a town in Clackmannanshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It is on the north bank of the Forth at the spot where some say it ceases to be the River Forth and becomes the Firth of Forth. Alloa is south of the Ochil Hills, 5.5 miles (8.9 km) east of Stirling and 7.9 miles (12.7 km) north of Falkirk; by water Alloa is 25 miles (40 km) from Granton.
Coats Group plc is a British multinational company. It is the world's largest thread and structural components' manufacturer for apparel, footwear, and performance materials. Founded over 250 years ago, the UK-based company has operations across 50 countries with a workforce of over 17,000 employees.
TNT is an Australian TV station based in Hobart, Tasmania, owned by Southern Cross Austereo. Originally broadcasting to northern Tasmania, it has broadcast to the whole of Tasmania since aggregation of the Tasmanian television market in 1994.
Longford is a town in the northern midlands of Tasmania, Australia. It lies 145 m above sea level at the convergence of the Macquarie River and the South Esk River, 21 km south of Launceston and a 15-minute drive from the airport. It is just south of the Illawarra Road, a road connecting the Bass and Midland Highways. It has a population of 3,863 and is part of the Northern Midlands Council area. The region is predominantly agricultural, noted for wool, dairy produce and stock breeding.
Football Tasmania (FT) is the governing body for soccer in the Australian state of Tasmania. The federation oversees competitions across Tasmania, Tasmanian representative teams, and development of the sport in the state. The federation was known as the Tasmanian Soccer Association until 1996, when it was renamed to Soccer Tasmania. In line with national changes in March 2006, it became Football Federation Tasmania. In February 2019, the organisation became simply Football Tasmania.
Jaeger is a British fashion brand and retailer of womenswear and menswear. Traditionally known for a classic 'twinset and pearls' image and the use of high-quality natural fibres, it has focused on updating its brand image since 2008, when it first appeared at London Fashion Week.
TheMercury is a daily newspaper, published in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, by Davies Brothers Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. The weekend issues of the paper are called Mercury on Saturday and Sunday Tasmanian. The current editor of TheMercury is Craig Herbert.
Mole Creek is a town in the upper Mersey Valley, in the central north of Tasmania, Australia. Mole Creek is well known for its honey and accounts for about 35 percent of Tasmania's honey production. The locality is in the Meander Valley Council area, but with about 3% in the Kentish Council LGA.
Charles Horner (1837–1896) was an English jeweller and founder of the Halifax jewellery business Charles Horner of Halifax.
Sir Henry Jones was an Australian businessman of significance in the development of Tasmanian industry and trade.
Viyella is a blend of wool and cotton first woven in 1893 in England, and the "first branded fabric in the world". It was made of 55% merino wool and 45% cotton in a twill weave, developed by James and Robert Sissons of William Hollins & Co, spinners and hosiers. The brand name, first registered as a trademark in 1894, and registered in the United States in 1907, soon covered not only the original fabric, to be sold by the yard, but also clothing. At first this was made by separate businesses, but it was not long before Hollins started producing their own clothes and offering franchises to manufacturers who would use the Viyella label. Following increasing emphasis on garment manufacture over the years, Viyella is now a fashion brand for clothes and home furnishings made of a variety of fabrics. The original wool/cotton blend is no longer sold.
Rail transport in Tasmania consists of a network of narrow gauge track of 1,067 mm reaching virtually all cities and major towns in the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Today, rail services are focused primarily on bulk freight, with no commercial passenger services being operated. The mainline railways of Tasmania are currently operated by TasRail, a Government of Tasmania-owned Corporation, who owns and maintains both rolling stock, locomotives, and track infrastructure.
Feltex Carpets is a manufacturer of residential and commercial carpets.
Cowden Park House is a house in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. On 17 June 1977 it was listed as a Category C(s) historic building.
Launceston College is a government comprehensive senior secondary school located in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. Established in 1913 as the Launceston State High School and subsequently known as Launceston College, the college caters for approximately 1,200 students in Years 11 and 12, and an optional Year 13. The college is administered by the Tasmanian Department for Education, Children and Young People.
Lion Brand Yarns, also known as Lion Brand Yarn Company and Lion Brand Yarn, was founded in 1878 in the United States. It is the oldest producer of knitting and craft yarn in the United States, and also publishes several knitting and crochet newsletters.
Lingfield Point is a 107-acre (0.43 km2) business park in Darlington, County Durham created on a historic industrial site previously home to Europe's largest wool manufacturing plant developed by Patons & Baldwins.
Eisaku Noro Company, Ltd. is a yarn manufacturer located in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan. The company produces yarns for handcrafting under the Noro brand name, as well as machine yarns for textile production using the Eisaku Noro label. The company was founded over forty years ago by Eisaku Noro. The handcrafting yarns in particular are well known for their vivid colors and combinations of diverse fiber types. They differ from a number of other manufactured yarns in the industry by having lengthier spans of color in the runs, causing distinctive striping patterns, as well as being partially spun by hand versus being produced completely by machines. In 2012, Noro Knitting Magazine initiated publication, which features knit and crochet patterns specifically designed for use with the yarns.
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