Harp Mill, Castleton

Harp
Cotton

Location within Greater Manchester
Spinning (ring mill)
Location	Castleton, Rochdale
Serving canal	Rochdale Canal
Serving railway	Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway
Further ownership	Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s)
Coordinates	53°35′38″N 2°10′23″W / 53.5940°N 2.1730°W / 53.5940; -2.1730
Boiler configuration
Boilers	Twin Lancashire, coal fired
References
^[1] ^[2]

Harp Mill is a former cotton spinning mill in the Castleton area of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. Queensway, Castleton was a hub of cotton mills including the three 't', Th'Arrow, Th'Harp, and Th'Ensor. The 1908 Castleton map includes: Marland Cotton Mill, Castleton Cotton Mill, Globe Works (Textile Machinery), Arrow Cotton Mill, Harp Cotton Mill, Globe Leather Works, Castleton Size Works and Castleton Iron Works. Th'Harp was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. The site now houses industrial units.

Location

Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England.^[3] It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, 5.3 miles (8.5 km) north-northwest of Oldham, and 9.8 miles (15.8 km) north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale.Castleton lies to the south west, just north of Chadderton, it became part of Rochdale in 1899.

Castleton is served by the Rochdale Canal which officially opened in 1804. This provides a broad canal link across the Pennines and consequent became an important transport corridor. Within Greater Manchester, the canal started at the Bridgewater Canal, linked with Ashton Canal and passed through Ancoats, Droylsden, Moston, Middleton and Chadderton before passing Castleton and to the south of Rochdale 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,^[4] in spite of competition from the Manchester and Leeds Railway.

The rail service provided by Manchester and Leeds Railway from 1839, had important goods yards at Castleton. It was amalgamated into the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1847, and lines ran to Bury, Burnley, Oldham, Manchester and Leeds.

History

Rochdale was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the first ever industrialised towns.^[5] The Rochdale Canal—one of the major navigable broad canals of the United Kingdom—was a highway of commerce during this time used for the haulage of cotton, wool, coal to and from the area.^[5] In 1882, Rochdale the home of industrial co-operatives, embraced the joint stock limited company and new mills were financed and built.^[6] Its ownership model was slightly different from that of Oldham, and more shares remained in the hands of the operatives. The canal granted jobs for hundreds of local residents, as it enabled the construction of several cotton mills. With the mills came the need for engineering and from 1892, Castleton was the home of Tweedales and Smalley who manufactured looms and textile machinery. Their 14-acre (5.7 ha) Globe Works factory no longer exists, being part of the Woolworth's site.

The Manchester and Leeds Railway Company (later the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway) arrived in Castleton in 1839.

The industry peaked in 1912 when it produced 8 billion yards of cloth. The Great War of 1914–18 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. The independent mills were struggling. The Bank of England set up the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in 1929 to attempt to rationalise and save the industry.^[7] Harp Mill, Castleton was one of 104 mills bought by the LCC, and one of the 53 mills that survived through to 1950.

Architecture

The Harp was a single-storey mill, with various sheds surrounding a central engine house. It was used for ring doubling.

Owners

Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s–1964)
Courtaulds (1964– )

Lancashire cotton

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

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

Ancillary firms	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

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 Northern Textile and Allied Workers' Union National Union of Textile and Allied Workers 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

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

References

Notes

↑ LCC 1951
↑ "Daddy of the lot". Rochdale Observer. 2006-03-20. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
↑ "Greater Manchester Gazetteer". Greater Manchester County Record Office. Places names - O to R. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 23 October 2008.
↑ New Moston History Society "Rochdale Canal". Retrieved 16 December 2007.
1 2 . McNeil, R.; Nevell, M. (2000), A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Greater Manchester, Association for Industrial Archaeology, ISBN 0-9528930-3-7
↑ Williams & Farnie 1992, p. 44
↑ Dunkerley 2009

Bibliography

Dunkerley, Philip (2009). "Dunkerley-Tuson Family Website, The Regent Cotton Mill, Failsworth". Retrieved 9 January 2009.
LCC (1951). The mills and organisation of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited. Blackfriars House, Manchester: Lancashire Cotton Corporation Limited.
Roberts, A S (1921), "Arthur Robert's Engine List", Arthur Roberts Black Book. (One guy from Barlick-Book Transcription), retrieved 11 January 2009

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Textile mills in Rochdale.

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