Queen Street Mill
Lancashire boilers , coal fired | |
Pressure | 140 |
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Equipment | |
Date | 1894 |
Manufacturer |
|
No. of looms | 990 (now 308) |
Queen Street Mill is a former weaving mill in Harle Syke, a suburb to the north-east of Burnley, Lancashire, that is a Grade I listed building.[1] It now operates as a museum and cafe. Currently open for public tours between April and November. Over winter the café is opened on Wednesdays. It is also viewable with private bookings.
It was built in 1894 for the Queen Street Manufacturing Company. It closed on 12 March 1982 and was mothballed, but was subsequently taken over by
Previously open to visitors and offering weaving demonstrations, the museum closed in September 2016 (except for pre-booked school parties). In April 2018 Lancashire County Council announced that the museum, along with Helmshore Mills Textile Museum and the Judges Lodgings in Lancaster, would reopen three days a week.[2]
Location
Queen Street Mill is a former working mill that lies within Harle Syke. It is a suburb of
History
The Queen Street Mill Manufacturing Company was established in 1894, capitalised with £20,000 in £5 shares. The first board of directors was listed as Brierley Edmondson (weaver), William Kippax (weaver), George Lane (builder), John Nuttall (glazer), Thomas Pickles (foreman), John Taylor (weaver), Whitaker Whitaker (weaver), and James Corrin (Headteacher, Haggate School) who became the first company secretary.
The completed cloth was taken by horse and cart and train to
The financial structure of the company inhibited change, and the original equipment was not improved again or replaced but the company continued to weave when other firms had closed. Mains electricity was only introduced in 1947.[5]
In November 2015 Lancashire County Council announced it planned to cease its funding of the museum and shut to the public from 1 April 2016. In March 2016 the museum was granted a six-month reprieve and remained open to the public until 30 September 2016 under the council. In April 2018 it was announced it would reopen Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from July 7 until 28 October 2018 and between Easter and the end of October 2019.
Harle Syke Strike, 1915
Weavers were paid by piecework; a good four-loom weaver was paid 24 shillings a week, only slightly less than the tackler. Harle Syke workers had always been paid slightly below the list, which management explained as being due to the carriage costs to Burnley. In August 1915 there was a strike that lasted for several weeks triggered by this injustice. Many workers were also shareholders[citation needed] and took a dividend from the profits of the mill, so they refused to join the strike. Leaflets were printed by the Weavers' Union accusing them of scabbing and being "Knobsticks". The issue was resolved in December 1915 when the War Bonus came into effect and weavers were persuaded to see this as the rise they had been seeking. Cotton Control was introduced in 1918, which led to a four-day working week.[4]
Fire, 1918
A serious fire occurred in October 1918. The fire did not affect the boilers or the engine, and the mill was fully operational again 10 days after the incident. However, the mill front was damaged, and was subsequently rebuilt, though as a single-storey building. During the rebuilding, the mill looms were relocated to the bottom shed. As forementioned, Prudence the engine, was undamaged in the fire and was renamed Peace, in respect for the fallen soldiers of the
Museum, 1983
By early 1982 the mill was only operating 440 looms and was no longer financially viable. It finally closed on 12 March 1982, and the mill was mothballed. The mill was rescued by
Exhibits
In addition to the original machines, Lancashire Museums also display other textile machines they own or are restoring, and weave some specialist commissions. One of the commissions is a blue and white shirting that is sold exclusively to 'Old Town' of Holt, Norfolk, who produce Victorian workware. Another is weaving
Closure
In November 2015 the Labour-controlled Lancashire County Council announced the withdrawal of funding from five of its museums: Fleetwood Museum, Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, Judges' Lodgings, Museum of Lancashire and Queen Street Mill because of what the leader of the council described as "the financial challenges facing the county council as we deal with relentless cuts to central government funding combined with rising demand for our services".[7][8][9] They were initially to close at the end of March 2016 but that month were reprieved until September 2016.[10][11]
The museum closed on 30 September 2016, along with the other four Lancashire museums mentioned above, except for pre-booked school groups. In October 2016 Lancashire County Council's website stated that "There has been an expression of interest from a potential new operator";[12] as of 3 June 2017[update] it stated that "Negotiations are underway to identify a new operator".[13] In April 2018 it was announced it would reopen on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from July 7 until 28 October 2018 and between Easter and the end of October 2019.[2]
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 37-metre (121 ft) chimney and the 60 m x 25 m lodge lay to the south. The boiler house, the engine house and chimney were previously scheduled monuments.[14] The whole site was granted Grade 1 listed status in 2013 giving protection to the rest of the building. [15]
As originally built the weaving shed was about 170 metres (560 ft) by 160 metres (520 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
Power
Steam is raised by two
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Lancashire Boiler
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Lancashire Boiler with feeders
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Peace, a tandem compound
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Looking towards the flywheel.
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Peace starting up
Equipment
The mill is particularly notable for 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.[5]
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 (made in 1919 by Howard & Bullough Ltd. of Accrington[19]). 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, passed 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 minutes, considerably faster than starting afresh. Spare healds and reeds are stored above head height for that purpose.[5]
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 its peak there were 990 looms, all driven by overhead line shafts.[5]
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Pirning
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Bobbins for Beaming frame
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Cylinder Sizer
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Drawing-in frame
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In the weaving shed
Notable events/media
The weaving shed was used in a scene in the 2010 film
Queen Street has also featured in a variety of documentaries including Channel 4's 2014 series Hidden Villages presented by Penelope Keith.
See also
- Grade I listed buildings in Lancashire
- Listed buildings in Briercliffe
- Bancroft Shed
- Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
- Textile manufacturing
References
- ^ Historic England & 1416482.
- ^ a b "Cabinet agrees to reopen some Lancashire museums". Lancashire County Council. 13 April 2018. Archived from the original on 27 April 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
- ^ "Queen Street Mill Textile Museum:People". Burnley: Lancashire County Council. 2011. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Kippax, Rowland (1 August 1978). "Village had eleven flourishing mills". Briercliffe Society. Burnley, Lancashire: Burnley Express. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
- ^ a b c d e "The last remaining steam powered mill in the world". Lancashire County Council. 2011.
- ^ a b Dunkerley, Paul (2008). "Engineering Timelines-Queen Street Mill". London: Engineering Timelines reg. charity no. 1128041. Archived from the original on 7 March 2012. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
- ^ Kirby, Dean (11 March 2016). "North of England 'at risk of becoming cultural wasteland' with museums hit by austerity measures". The Independent. Archived from the original on 19 August 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
- ^ "East Lancashire MP vows to fight for axe-threat museums". Lancashire Telegraph. 18 November 2015. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
- ^ "Lancashire County Council confirms cuts to job and services". BBC News. 27 November 2015. Archived from the original on 1 December 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
- ^ "Reprieve for Lancashire's under-threat council museums". BBC News. 18 March 2016. Archived from the original on 12 September 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
- ^ Sullivan, Nicola (12 February 2016). "Five Lancashire Museums in last chance saloon". Museums Association. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
- ^ "Museums". Lancashire County Council. Archived from the original on 14 October 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
- ^ "Museums". Lancashire County Council. Archived from the original on 4 June 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
- ^ "Queen Street Mill Textile Museum". Lancashire County Council. 2011.
- ^ Grade I Listed building 1416482
- ^ Christened on 30 July 1895 cited in Burnley Express 31 July 1895
- ^ Date uncertain, the current Economiser dates from 1934.
- ^ Ashmore 1982, p. 190.
- ^ Queen Street Mill Textile Museum. Preston: Lancashire County Council. 2012.
Bibliography
- Ashmore, Owen (1982). The industrial archaeology of North-west England. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-0820-4. Retrieved 25 June 2009.
- "List entry number 1416482". Historic England. English Heritage. Retrieved 24 April 2021.
Further reading
- Chapman, S.J. (1904). The Lancashire Cotton Industry, A Study in Economic Development. Manchester.
- Haynes, Ian (1987). Cotton in Ashton. Libraries and Arts Committee, Tameside Metropolitan Borough. ISBN 0-904506-14-2.
- ISBN 0-521-45834-X.
- ISBN 1-4021-4558-6. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
- Roberts, A S (1921), "Arthur Robert's Engine List", Arthur Roberts Black Book., One guy from Barlick-Book Transcription, archived from the original on 23 July 2011, retrieved 11 January 2009