Atlas Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne

Atlas Mill
Cotton

Location within Greater Manchester
Spinning (Mule mill)
Location	Waterloo, Ashton-under-Lyne
Serving railway	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Owner	Atlas Mill Company Ltd.
Further ownership	Atlas Mills (1920s) Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s)
Coordinates	53°29′43″N 2°05′48″W / 53.4952°N 2.0968°W / 53.4952; -2.0968
Construction
Built	Feb 1898
Completed	June 1900
Demolished	1994
Floor count	4
Main contractor	J Partington and Son of Middleton Junction
Design team
Architect	Sydney Stott of Oldham
Power
Engine maker	George Saxon & Co
Equipment
Mule Frames	72,928 spindles (1900)
References
Haynes 1987, p. 50

Atlas Mill was a cotton spinning mill in the Waterloo district of Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, in England. It was built between 1898 and 1900 for the Ashton Syndicate by Sydney Stott of Oldham. It was last mill in Ashton to cease spinning. It was spinning artificial fibres in 1987, and was demolished in 1994; the site is now a housing estate.^[1]

Location

Atlas mill was built next to Rock Mill which had been built site of the former Wilshaw Mill, on the junction of Oldham Road and Wilshaw Lane. This had been an unusual site for a mill as it was not close to railways or canals. The water needed to supply the steam engine at Wilshaw Mill came from a reservoir formed by damming the Smallshaw Brook. The reservoir was enlarged when Rock Mill was built.

History

The Minerva Spinning Company Limited was registered in 1891 to build the Minerva Mill at Whitelands. The directors were Messrs Barlow, Marland, Coop, Newton, Pollitt and Pownall; they were later referred to as the Ashton syndicate. In 1891, they built Rock Mill. Then 1898, the syndicate registered the Atlas Mill Co. Ltd, with a capital of £70,000 (£7,000,000 as of 2016)^[2] to build the Atlas Mill. This was their third mill. The syndicate went on to build Curzon Mill, Tudor Mill, Cedar Mill and finally the Texas Mill.

The cotton industry peaked in 1912 when it produced 8 billion yards of cloth. The Great War of 1914–1918 halted the supply of raw cotton, and the British government encouraged its colonies to build mills to spin and weave cotton. The war over, Lancashire never regained its markets.

On 7 January 1921 all the syndicate's mills went into voluntary liquidation and were passed to the Atlas Mills Ltd group.^[3] Atlas Mill was their headquarters. They were struggling. The Bank of England set up the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1929 to attempt to rationalise and save the industry. Atlas Mills Limited was taken over by the LCC in 1929. Thus, Atlas Mill was one of 104 mills brought into LCC ownership, and one of the 53 mills that survived through to 1950, where it produced 60 to 100 count mule twist. It closed in 1994 and the site is now a housing estate, part of which was built a number of years before Atlas Mill's closure and was distinguished by a campaign of noise complaint about an establishment of 90 years standing. The roads bear the names Watermill Court and Cedar Mews which gives some indication of their antecedents but will mislead historians about contemporary attitudes.^[4]

Architecture

This was a Sydney Stott building. It was four storeys high built on a basement from engineering brick. The large windows were in groups of three, and there was yellow brick decoration. It had a Hotel-de-Ville style water tower. The six bay engine house, boiler house and chimney were to the north.^[5]

Power

The steam engine was by George Saxon & Co, of Openshaw.

Usage

Atlas Mill was used for spinning fine counts of twists and weft from Egyptian cotton. In 1951 it was spinning Egyptian yarns of counts 60 to 100, using both ring and twist spindles.^[6] In 1987 it was spinning & winding artificial fibres.^[7] The latter utilised advanced German designed Schlafhorst Winding Machinery but as late as 1982 Mather & Platt 1897 winding frames were still used as backup. This can be seen as admirable frugality or as a sign of the make do and mend and lack of investment that resulted in the closure of the Northern Spinning Division.

Owners

The Ashton sydicate
Atlas Mills
Lancashire Cotton Corporation
Courtauld's Northern Textiles

References

↑ "Cotton Mills of Ashton — Archive Photographs". Archived from the original on 15 December 2008. Retrieved 9 January 2009.
↑ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.
↑ London Gazette 7th Dec 1920
↑ Haynes 1987, p. 49.
↑ Ashmore 1982, p. 77
↑ The mills and organisation of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited. Blackfriars House Manchester: Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited. 1951.
↑ Haynes 1987, p. 50

Bibliography

The mills and organisation of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited. Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited. 1951.
Ashton. "Cotton Mills of Ashton – Archive Photographs". Archived from the original on 15 December 2008. Retrieved 9 January 2009.
Haynes, Ian (1987). Cotton in Ashton. Libraries and Arts Committee, Tameside Metropolitan Borough. ISBN 0-904506-14-2.
Roberts, A S (1921). "Arthur Robert's Engine List". Arthur Roberts Black Book. One guy from Barlick-Book Transcription. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
Williams, Mike; Farnie, D. A., eds. (1992). Cotton Mills in Greater Manchester. Carnegie Publishing. ISBN 0-948789-89-1.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mills in the United Kingdom.

Lancashire cotton

Architects	David Bellhouse Bradshaw Gass & Hope F.W. Dixon & Son Edward Potts Potts, Pickup & Dixon Stott Sidney Stott (later Sir Philip)

Engine makers	Daniel Adamson Ashton Frost Ashworth & Parker Bateman & Sherratt Boulton & Watt Browett, Lindley & Co Buckley & Taylor Carels Frères Earnshaw & Holt Fairbairn W & J Galloway & Sons Benjamin Goodfellow Hick, Hargreaves & Co Benjamin Hick and Sons John Musgrave & Sons J & W McNaught Petrie of Rochdale William Roberts & Co of Nelson George Saxon Scott & Hodgson Urmson & Thompson Yates of Blackburn Yates & Thom Willans & Robinson J & E Wood Woolstenhulmes & Rye

Machinery makers	Brooks & Doxey Butterworth & Dickinson Curtis, Parr & Walton Dobson & Barlow John Hetherington & Sons Joseph Hibbert John Pilling and Sons Harling & Todd Howard & Bullough Geo. Hattersley Asa Lees Mather & Platt Parr, Curtis & Madely British Northrop Loom Co Pemberton & Co Platt Brothers Taylor, Lang & Co Textile Machinery Makers Tweedales & Smalley T. Wildman & Sons

Mill owners	Elkanah Armitage Henry Ashworth Hugh Birley Hugh Hornby Birley Joseph Brotherton James Burton Peter Drinkwater Nathaniel Eckersley John Fielden William Gray Richard Howarth William Houldsworth John Kennedy Charles Macintosh Hugh Mason Samuel Oldknow Robert Peel John Rylands

Limited companies	Oldham Limiteds Fine Spinners and Doublers Lancashire Cotton Corporation Combined Egyptian Mills Ltd Courtaulds Bagley & Wright

Industrial processes	Textile manufacturing Cotton-spinning machinery Dref Friction Spinning Dandy loom Magnetic ring spinning Open end spinning Ring spinning Spinning frame Spinning jenny Spinning mule Steaming Water frame Roberts Loom Lancashire Loom Lancashire boiler

Associations	Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters and Drawers (Hand and Machine) Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners Amalgamated Textile Warehousemen's Association Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union Amalgamated Weavers' Association Burnley, Nelson, Rossendale and District Textile Workers' Union General Union of Loom Overlookers North East Lancashire Amalgamated Weavers' Association Northern Textile and Allied Workers' Union National Union of Textile and Allied Workers The Textile Institute United Textile Factory Workers' Association

Employment practices	More looms Kissing the shuttle Mule spinners' cancer Piece-rate list

Lists of mills	LCC mills Bolton Bury Cheshire Derbyshire Lancashire Manchester Oldham (borough) Preston Rochdale Salford Stockport Tameside Wigan Yorkshire

Museums	Bancroft Shed Helmshore Mills Queen Street Mill Weavers' Triangle Quarry Bank Mill, Styal

Pioneers	Richard Arkwright Samuel Crompton James Hargreaves Thomas Highs John Kay (flying shuttle) John Kay (spinning frame) Robert Owen

Lancashire Cotton Corporation

Bury	Pilot Mill, Bury Wilton Mill, Radcliffe

Bolton	Ainsworth Mill, Breightmet Bolton Union Mill, Bolton Century Mill, Farnworth

Lancashire	Coppull Mill Imperial Mill, Blackburn Mavis Mill

Manchester and Salford	Brunswick Mill, Ancoats May Mill, Pemberton Monton Mill, Eccles

Oldham	Ace Mill, Hollinwood Blackridings Mill, Oldham Dawn Mill, Shaw Fox Mill, Hollinwood Hawk Mill, Shaw Heron Mill, Hollinwood Junction Mill, Middleton Junction Kent Mill, Chadderton Laurel Mill, Middleton Junction Magnet Mill, Chadderton Majestic Mill, Waterhead Manor Mill, Chadderton Newby Mill, Shaw Orme Mill, Waterhead Regent Mill, Failsworth Royd Mill, Oldham Royton Ring Mill, Royton Rutland Mill, Shaw Textile Mill, Chadderton Trent Mill, Shaw

Rochdale	Arkwright Mill, Rochdale Harp Mill, Castleton Malta Mill, Middleton Mars Mill, Castleton

Stockport	Elder Mill, Romiley Kingston Mill, Stockport Palmer Mills, Stockport Vernon Mill, Stockport Welkin Mill, Lower Bredbury

Tameside	Atlas Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Cedar Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Rock Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Saxon Mill, Droylsden Stalybridge Mill, Stalybridge Texas Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Tudor Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne Waterside Mill, Ashton-under-Lyne

Wigan	Empress Mill, Ince May Mill, Pemberton Trencherfield Mill

West Yorkshire	Foxsons Mill, Staincliffe Mons Mill, Todmorden

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