Pinsley Mill, also known as Etnam Street Mill, [1] is a former watermill in Leominster, Herefordshire, England.
It was one of Leominster's first mills, situated where the Pinsley Brook left the monastic precinct around Leominster Priory, and was mentioned in a lease of 1675 as a "watercorne" mill. [1]
At some time between 1744 and 1748 it was reopened by Daniel Bourn as a cotton mill, one of the Paul-Wyatt cotton mills built to house the roller spinning machinery invented by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, [2] that first enabled the spinning of cotton "without the aid of human fingers". [3] Bourn's mill operated successfully as a mill until 1754, when it was destroyed by fire. [4]
The mill was rebuilt and returned to its original function as a corn mill, remaining in use until the Second World War. [1]
The mill was vandalised and set alight several times in 2010 – 2013. It was demolished in 2014.
Carding is a mechanical process that disentangles, cleans and intermixes fibres to produce a continuous web or sliver suitable for subsequent processing. This is achieved by passing the fibres between differentially moving surfaces covered with "card clothing", a firm flexible material embedded with metal pins. It breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres to be parallel with each other. In preparing wool fibre for spinning, carding is the step that comes after teasing.
Leominster is a market town in Herefordshire, England; it is located at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is 12 miles north of Hereford and 7 miles south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster is the largest of the five towns in the county; the others being Ross-on-Wye, Ledbury, Bromyard and Kington.
John Kay was an English inventor whose most important creation was the flying shuttle, which was a key contribution to the Industrial Revolution. He is often confused with his namesake, who built the first "spinning frame".
A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system.
Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution was centred in south Lancashire and the towns on both sides of the Pennines in the United Kingdom. The main drivers of the Industrial Revolution were textile manufacturing, iron founding, steam power, oil drilling, the discovery of electricity and its many industrial applications, the telegraph and many others. Railroads, steamboats, the telegraph and other innovations massively increased worker productivity and raised standards of living by greatly reducing time spent during travel, transportation and communications.
Cotton-spinning machinery is machines which process prepared cotton roving into workable yarn or thread. Such machinery can be dated back centuries. During the 18th and 19th centuries, as part of the Industrial Revolution cotton-spinning machinery was developed to bring mass production to the cotton industry. Cotton spinning machinery was installed in large factories, commonly known as cotton mills.
Lewis Paul was the original inventor of roller spinning, the basis of the water frame for spinning cotton in a cotton mill.
Thomas Warren was an English bookseller, printer, publisher and businessman.
Hawk Mill, Shaw was a cotton spinning mill in Shaw, Oldham, Greater Manchester. It was built in 1908. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1931 and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. The mill closed in 1967, and was demolished in 1991.
Arkwright Mill, Rochdale is a cotton spinning mill in Rochdale, Greater Manchester. It was built in 1885 by the Arkwright Cotton Spinning Co. It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. It was located next to Dale Mill on Roch Street. The ring and doubling frames were made by Howard & Bullough, Accrington. The mill closed in 1980, was demolished in 2007 and the land redeveloped for housing.
Malta Mill, Middleton is a former cotton spinning mill in the Mills Hill area of Chadderton, Greater Manchester. It lies alongside the Rochdale Canal. It was built in 1904 as a new mule mill, by F. W. Dixon The engine stopped in 1963. The building still stands.
Junction Mill, Middleton Junction is a cotton spinning mill at Middleton junction, Chadderton in Greater Manchester alongside the Rochdale Canal.
Empress Mill, Ince was a single storey shed mill alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, spinning cotton in Ince, Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It was acquired by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1930, and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. Production ceased in 1975. It was the last mill in Ince to close, despite the intervention of Member of Parliament Michael McGuire, and a debate in the House of Commons on 20 March 1975.
Marvel's Mill on the River Nene in Northampton, England, was the world's second factory for spinning cotton, the first to be operated as a water mill, and the first to be driven by an inanimate power-source. Opened by Edward Cave in 1742, it was one of the Paul-Wyatt cotton mills that used the roller spinning machinery invented by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, which had first been used in their Upper Priory Cotton Mill in Birmingham in the summer of 1741.
J. & N. Philips and Company was a business established in 1747 by members of the Philips family, and which ceased trading in 1970. Originally based in Tean, Staffordshire, England, the business was a manufacturer of textile products that expanded both by organic growth and by taking over other businesses involved in the manufacture and merchanting of textile products and smallware. It formed a part of a network of companies operated by the family, whose business interests came to include manufacture of hats and textiles such as linen smallwares, silks and fustians, as well as cotton spinning and dealing, power loom weaving, export merchanting and general warehousing. The family made the majority of its wealth from their involvement in the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The family was also involved in politics, with George Philips, Mark Philips and Robert Needham Philips all being Members of Parliament and all promoting the ideals of Manchesterism while in office. George's son, George Richard Philips, was also a member of the House of Commons.
Daniel Bourn was an English inventor, who took out a patent for a carding machine with rotating cylinders in 1748.
Robert "Parsley" Peel was a British cotton mill owner and grandfather to Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, future prime minister of the United Kingdom. Peel started life as a yeoman farmer but experimented with calico printing, eventually creating a parsley leaf pattern which would become his trademark. Despite losing a number of machines during riots, Peel's company became the largest in the textile sector by the time of his death, with 23 factories.
The Paul-Wyatt cotton mills were the world's first mechanised cotton spinning factories. Operating from 1741 until 1764 they were built to house the roller spinning machinery invented by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt. They were not very profitable but they span cotton successfully for several decades.
Samuel Touchet was an English cotton merchant, manufacturer and politician.