Ellenroad Mill
Encyclopedia
Ellenroad Mill was a cotton spinning mill in Newhey
, Milnrow
, Rochdale
in England. It was built as a mule spinning mill
in 1890 by Stott and Sons
and extended in 1899. It was destroyed by fire on 19 Jan 1916. When it was rebuilt, it was designed and equipped as a ring spinning
mill.
After closure, the mill itself was demolished in 1982, but the engine house – complete with steam engine – and the boiler house chimney were retained. Ownership passed to the Ellenroad Trust. The Ellenroad Ring Mill Engine
is still steamed on occasions for demonstrations.
(archaically
"New Hey") Newhey is now a suburb
an village in the Milnrow
area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
, in Greater Manchester
, England. It lies at the foot of the Pennines
,in the valley of the River Beal
, 2.7 miles (4.3 km) east-southeast of Rochdale
, 10.3 miles (16.6 km) northeast of Manchester
.
Historically
a part of Lancashire
, Newhey was anciently a hamlet
within the township of Butterworth
. It was described in 1828 as "consisting of several ranges of cottages and two public houses". In the early 19th century a major road was built through Newhey from Werneth
to Littleborough. Newhey was incorporated into the Milnrow Urban District
in 1894. There were five mills recorded in Newhey in 1920: including Ellenroad, Newhey, Coral, Haugh and Garfield.
The Rochdale Canal
which officially opened in 1804, provided a broad canal link across the Pennines and consequently became an important transport corridor. The canal started within Greater Manchester, at the Bridgewater Canal
, linked with the Ashton Canal
, and passed through Ancoats
, Droylsden
, Moston
, Middleton
and Chadderton
before passing to the south of Rochdale
and the north of Milnrow and Newhey, towards Todmorden
. The canal carried coal and cotton to the mills, and the completed yarn to the weaving sheds. In 1890 the canal company had 2,000 barges and traffic reached 700,000 tons/year, the equivalent of 50 barges a day. It provided an axis for the development of the cotton industry. Newhey was 3 km from the canal and was late in building cotton mills. More significantly the Manchester and Leeds Railway
built the Oldham Loop Line through Milnrow and Newhey in 1839. It was amalgamated into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
in 1847. Today the engine house of Ellenroad mill lies to the south of Junction 21 of the M62 motorway
.
Rochdale was a prime site for cotton spinning in 1890. It was conveniently located for the coal fields and the railways made the importation of cotton easy.
to manage the design and construction. The design was a for a conservative five-storey 40-bay mule spinning mill, with detached engine and boiler houses, driving the line shaft
s by means of a rope drive. Stotts designed 5 mills in Rochdale, for instance in 1888 they had erected the Moss Mill. For the steam engine
they went to the local firm of J & W McNaught and chose a single triple-expansion horizontal engine, which in 1890 produced the greatest efficiency in terms of power per ton of coal. The steam was raised by five Lancashire boilers. These required a 220 ft chimney to provide the draught. Work commenced February 1891, and the first cotton was passing through the card room in May 1892, the final mule was installed and in operation by December 1892. Because this was a Stott mill, it is likely that the whole of the machinery would have come from one supplier and this would have been Platt Brothers
of Oldham or failing that Dobson & Barlow
. The mill would have had humidifiers and a sprinkler system. The mill was extended by Stott and Sons in 1899.
At this point in its history it might be expected that the mill then followed the conventional course of its contemporaries: the industry peaked in 1912 when it produced 8 billion yards of cloth; The First World War of 1914–18 halted the supply of raw cotton; and the British government encouraged its overseas colonies to build mills to spin and weave cotton. The war over, Lancashire would never regain its markets.
However at 2:30 pm on 19 January 1916 the headstock of one of the two mules
tended by JW Taylor in Number 2 Spinning Room caught fire. The sprinkler system and the operatives could not contain the fire. The fire brigades of both Rochdale and Oldham were summoned, Oldham were delayed until 4:00. By 5:00 the fire was believed to have been extinguished, but it reignited, and with the help of strong wind burnt fiercely. At 8:00 pm the centre of the mill collapsed. Though it was of fire-proof construction on the patent triple brick arch method, the iron girders had been subjected to great heat and dousing with water, and this caused them to fracture. By the following day the ruins of the mill had become a tourist attraction. The boiler and engine houses were untouched.
The mill was rebuilt, but in a new form: as a ring spinning mill, thus replacing the slower mules with ring frames. Mules still produced the finest spin, but that was a more niche market, and money was now made with rings. More ring spindles could be operated in the same space. Many mills were converted to ring frames, but the most efficient ring frames required a greater floor height, and the positioning of the floor support pillars (and hence the bay size) needed to be changed in order to achieve the greatest spindle density. The new mill was called the Ellenroad Ring Mill to distinguish it from the former Ellenroad mule mill. The opportunity was also taken to reconfigure the engine. The four-cylinder triple-expansion horizontal engine by J & W McNaught was rebuilt as a twin tandem which would deliver the extra power required by the increased number of spindles.
The mill continued to spin cotton into the 1980s. The mill was electrified in 1975, and the engines fell silent but remained intact. After closure in 1982 the mill was largely demolished by 1985 although the boiler house, engine house – complete with steam engine – and the boiler house chimney were retained. These were taken over by the Ellenroad Trust, who have maintained the engine and acquired a beam engine
and other smaller engines. The one remaining Lancashire boiler is fired-up once a month to demonstrate these engines in steam.
. It was a five-storey brick fireproof mule mill, 40 bays by 18. It had corner turrets and 3 projecting towers on south front. The second mill, was a rebuild by other architects.
spinning mules, and breaking and carding equipment. Replaced by ring frames in 1916.
Newhey
Newhey is a suburban village in the Milnrow area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England...
, Milnrow
Milnrow
Milnrow is a suburban town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with Rochdale...
, Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
in England. It was built as a mule spinning mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
in 1890 by Stott and Sons
Stott and Sons
Stott and Sons was an architectural practice in Greater Manchester between 1847 and 1931. It specialised in cotton mills, designing 191 buildings of which 130 were mills or buildings related to the cotton industry....
and extended in 1899. It was destroyed by fire on 19 Jan 1916. When it was rebuilt, it was designed and equipped as a ring spinning
Ring spinning
Ring spinning is a method of spinning fibres, such as cotton, flax or wool, to make a yarn. The ring frame developed from the throstle frame, which in its turn was a descendant of Arkwright's water frame. Ring spinning is a continuous process, unlike mule spinning which uses an intermittent action...
mill.
After closure, the mill itself was demolished in 1982, but the engine house – complete with steam engine – and the boiler house chimney were retained. Ownership passed to the Ellenroad Trust. The Ellenroad Ring Mill Engine
Ellenroad Ring Mill Engine
The Ellenroad Ring Mill Engine is a preserved stationary steam engine in Milnrow, Greater Manchester. It powered the Ellenroad Ring Mill from 1917, and after the mill's closure the engine is still worked under steam as a museum display....
is still steamed on occasions for demonstrations.
Location
Ellenroad mill was situated on flat land alongside the river in NewheyNewhey
Newhey is a suburban village in the Milnrow area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England...
(archaically
Archaism
In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...
"New Hey") Newhey is now a suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an village in the Milnrow
Milnrow
Milnrow is a suburban town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with Rochdale...
area of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
The Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England. It is named after its largest town, Rochdale, but spans a far larger area which includes the towns of Middleton, Heywood, Littleborough and Milnrow, and the village of Wardle.The borough was...
, in Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, England. It lies at the foot of the Pennines
Pennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
,in the valley of the River Beal
River Beal
The Beal is a small river in Greater Manchester, England, and is a tributary of the River Roch. It rises in the Beal Valley in green space between Sholver and Royton, before continuing northwards through, Shaw and Crompton, Newhey, Milnrow and Belfield....
, 2.7 miles (4.3 km) east-southeast of Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
, 10.3 miles (16.6 km) northeast of Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
.
Historically
Historic counties of England
The historic counties of England are subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and shires...
a part of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
, Newhey was anciently a hamlet
Hamlet (place)
A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...
within the township of Butterworth
Butterworth (ancient township)
Butterworth was a township occupying the southeastern part of the parish of Rochdale, in the hundred of Salford, Lancashire, England. It encompassed of land by the South Pennines which spanned the settlements of Belfield, Bleaked-gate-cum-Roughbank, Butterworth Hall, Clegg, Firgrove, Haughs,...
. It was described in 1828 as "consisting of several ranges of cottages and two public houses". In the early 19th century a major road was built through Newhey from Werneth
Werneth, Greater Manchester
Werneth is an area of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It is west-southwest of Oldham's commercial centre and one of Oldham's most ancient localities.-History:...
to Littleborough. Newhey was incorporated into the Milnrow Urban District
Milnrow Urban District
Milnrow Urban District was, from 1894 to 1974, a local government district of the administrative county of Lancashire, in northwest England. It covered an area to the east and southeast of the County Borough of Rochdale, and included the town of Milnrow, the village of New Hey, and the Piethorne...
in 1894. There were five mills recorded in Newhey in 1920: including Ellenroad, Newhey, Coral, Haugh and Garfield.
The Rochdale Canal
Rochdale Canal
The Rochdale Canal is a navigable "broad" canal in northern England, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. The "Rochdale" in its name refers to the town of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, through which the canal passes....
which officially opened in 1804, provided a broad canal link across the Pennines and consequently became an important transport corridor. The canal started within Greater Manchester, at the Bridgewater Canal
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester...
, linked with the Ashton Canal
Ashton Canal
The Ashton Canal is a canal built in Greater Manchester in North West England.-Route:The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18 locks, passing through Ancoats, Holt Town, Bradford-with-Beswick, Clayton, Openshaw, Droylsden,...
, and passed through Ancoats
Ancoats
Ancoats is an inner city area of Manchester, in North West England, next to the Northern Quarter and the northern part of Manchester's commercial centre....
, Droylsden
Droylsden
Droylsden is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is to the east of Manchester city centre, and west-southwest of Ashton-under-Lyne, it has a population of 23,172....
, Moston
Moston, Greater Manchester
Moston is a district of Manchester, in North West England, approximately 3 miles north east of the city centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, Moston is a predominantly residential area, with a population of about 12,500 and covering approximately .-History:The name Moston may derive...
, Middleton
Middleton, Greater Manchester
Middleton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Irk, south-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester...
and Chadderton
Chadderton
Chadderton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of Lancashire...
before passing to the south of Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
and the north of Milnrow and Newhey, towards Todmorden
Todmorden
Todmorden is a market town and civil parish, located 17 miles from Manchester, within the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. It forms part of the Upper Calder Valley and has a total population of 14,941....
. The canal carried coal and cotton to the mills, and the completed yarn to the weaving sheds. In 1890 the canal company had 2,000 barges and traffic reached 700,000 tons/year, the equivalent of 50 barges a day. It provided an axis for the development of the cotton industry. Newhey was 3 km from the canal and was late in building cotton mills. More significantly the Manchester and Leeds Railway
Manchester and Leeds Railway
The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom which opened in 1839, connecting Manchester with Leeds via the North Midland Railway which it joined at Normanton....
built the Oldham Loop Line through Milnrow and Newhey in 1839. It was amalgamated into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway was a major British railway company before the 1923 Grouping. It was incorporated in 1847 from an amalgamation of several existing railways...
in 1847. Today the engine house of Ellenroad mill lies to the south of Junction 21 of the M62 motorway
M62 motorway
The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22...
.
Rochdale was a prime site for cotton spinning in 1890. It was conveniently located for the coal fields and the railways made the importation of cotton easy.
| Date | 1883 | 1893 | 1903 | 1913 | 1923 | 1926 | 1933 | 1944 | 1953 | 1962 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rochdale | 1,627 | 1,835 | 2,422 | 3,645 | 3,749 | 3,793 | 3,539 | 2,459 | 1,936 | 983 |
History
The Ellenroad mill was a conventional, late nineteenth century, cotton mill. During the boom of the late 1880s, a limited company, the Ellenroad Spinning Co. Ltd, was formed to build a new mill. They chose the well-respected Oldham architects of Stott and SonsStott and Sons
Stott and Sons was an architectural practice in Greater Manchester between 1847 and 1931. It specialised in cotton mills, designing 191 buildings of which 130 were mills or buildings related to the cotton industry....
to manage the design and construction. The design was a for a conservative five-storey 40-bay mule spinning mill, with detached engine and boiler houses, driving the line shaft
Line shaft
A line shaft is a power transmission system used extensively during the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the widespread use of electric motors small enough to be connected directly to each piece of machinery, line shafting was used to distribute power from a large central power source to machinery...
s by means of a rope drive. Stotts designed 5 mills in Rochdale, for instance in 1888 they had erected the Moss Mill. For the steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
they went to the local firm of J & W McNaught and chose a single triple-expansion horizontal engine, which in 1890 produced the greatest efficiency in terms of power per ton of coal. The steam was raised by five Lancashire boilers. These required a 220 ft chimney to provide the draught. Work commenced February 1891, and the first cotton was passing through the card room in May 1892, the final mule was installed and in operation by December 1892. Because this was a Stott mill, it is likely that the whole of the machinery would have come from one supplier and this would have been Platt Brothers
Platt Brothers
Platt Brothers & Co Ltd, was a British company based at Oldham, in North West England. They were textile machinery manufacturers, iron founders and colliery proprietors, and by the end of the 19th century, had become the largest textile machinery company in the world, employing over 12,000 workers...
of Oldham or failing that Dobson & Barlow
Dobson & Barlow
Dobson and Barlow were textile machinery manufacturers from Bolton. The partnership was founded in 1851 between Benjamin Dobson and Edward Barlow, building on a production facilities extending back to 1790.-Later history:...
. The mill would have had humidifiers and a sprinkler system. The mill was extended by Stott and Sons in 1899.
At this point in its history it might be expected that the mill then followed the conventional course of its contemporaries: the industry peaked in 1912 when it produced 8 billion yards of cloth; The First World War of 1914–18 halted the supply of raw cotton; and the British government encouraged its overseas colonies to build mills to spin and weave cotton. The war over, Lancashire would never regain its markets.
However at 2:30 pm on 19 January 1916 the headstock of one of the two mules
Spinning mule
The spinning mule was a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer...
tended by JW Taylor in Number 2 Spinning Room caught fire. The sprinkler system and the operatives could not contain the fire. The fire brigades of both Rochdale and Oldham were summoned, Oldham were delayed until 4:00. By 5:00 the fire was believed to have been extinguished, but it reignited, and with the help of strong wind burnt fiercely. At 8:00 pm the centre of the mill collapsed. Though it was of fire-proof construction on the patent triple brick arch method, the iron girders had been subjected to great heat and dousing with water, and this caused them to fracture. By the following day the ruins of the mill had become a tourist attraction. The boiler and engine houses were untouched.
The mill was rebuilt, but in a new form: as a ring spinning mill, thus replacing the slower mules with ring frames. Mules still produced the finest spin, but that was a more niche market, and money was now made with rings. More ring spindles could be operated in the same space. Many mills were converted to ring frames, but the most efficient ring frames required a greater floor height, and the positioning of the floor support pillars (and hence the bay size) needed to be changed in order to achieve the greatest spindle density. The new mill was called the Ellenroad Ring Mill to distinguish it from the former Ellenroad mule mill. The opportunity was also taken to reconfigure the engine. The four-cylinder triple-expansion horizontal engine by J & W McNaught was rebuilt as a twin tandem which would deliver the extra power required by the increased number of spindles.
The mill continued to spin cotton into the 1980s. The mill was electrified in 1975, and the engines fell silent but remained intact. After closure in 1982 the mill was largely demolished by 1985 although the boiler house, engine house – complete with steam engine – and the boiler house chimney were retained. These were taken over by the Ellenroad Trust, who have maintained the engine and acquired a beam engine
Beam engine
A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall...
and other smaller engines. The one remaining Lancashire boiler is fired-up once a month to demonstrate these engines in steam.
Architecture
The first mill was designed in 1890 by Stott and SonsStott and Sons
Stott and Sons was an architectural practice in Greater Manchester between 1847 and 1931. It specialised in cotton mills, designing 191 buildings of which 130 were mills or buildings related to the cotton industry....
. It was a five-storey brick fireproof mule mill, 40 bays by 18. It had corner turrets and 3 projecting towers on south front. The second mill, was a rebuild by other architects.
Power
The J & W McNaught single triple-expansion horizontal engine, with Corliss valves on the HP, was reconfigured in 1916 into a 3000 IHP twin tandem. It had Craig cut off gear attached to Corliss valves on the HP cylinders, and slide valves on the LP cylinders. It was regulated by a Whitehead governor, and drove an 80–ton, 28–foot flywheel grooved for 44 ropes.Equipment
Originally Platt BrothersPlatt Brothers
Platt Brothers & Co Ltd, was a British company based at Oldham, in North West England. They were textile machinery manufacturers, iron founders and colliery proprietors, and by the end of the 19th century, had become the largest textile machinery company in the world, employing over 12,000 workers...
spinning mules, and breaking and carding equipment. Replaced by ring frames in 1916.
See also
- Textile manufacturingTextile manufacturingTextile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based in the conversion of three types of fibre into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. These are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. Cotton remains the most important natural fibre, so is treated in depth...
- Cotton MillCotton millA cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
- StottStottThe Stotts were a family of architects from Oldham in North West England who specialised in the design of cotton mills. James Stott was the father, Joseph and his elder brother Abraham Stott had rival practices, and in later years didn't communicate...
External links
- Ellenroad Trust Details about the engines.
- www.cottontown.org
- www.spinningtheweb.org.uk