A GOOD YARN

Your article in the summer issue about the resurgence of cotton spinning at Tower Mill was of great interest to me. The detail of English Fine Cotton’s choice of cotton variety and processing equipment gave me cause for much pleasure.

My own memories from my boyhood of this once great industry are vastly different. That was the age of the steam engine. The pride of the Industrial Revolution, which brought to mind such eminent inventors as Arkwright, Crompton and Hargreaves.

Lancashire was the centre of the fine spinning trade of the world. There were hundreds of cotton mills, each with their own steam engine providing the motive power for all the machinery within its buildings.

The engine that I used to watch was a Vertical Marine Engine, capable of developing a working horsepower of 2,000 units. This power was used to drive the immense mass of machinery contained in nine storeys of the mill, one of the biggest in Bolton, which boasted 160,000 mule spindles in addition to all the preparatory machinery. Often, I stood to watch the huge pistons rising and falling. A caged monster with its beam rocking up and down, driving the ropes that transmitted the power to the various landings at the side of the rope gallery. The hissing of steam, the heat, the rumblings and vibrations remain forever in my memory.

For many years I was engaged in the textile industry, and in the 1950s was a trainee at Swan Lane Spinning

Company, Bolton. Built in the early Edwardian era, Swan Lane Mills 1 and 2 were erected in 1902 and 1905 respectively. They originally housed some 220,000 mule spindles on six floors, and this edifice was said to be the largest mill in the world.

In 1914, Swan Lane built their Number 3 Mill, which was eight storeys tall with a basement and contained 120,000 spindles. Plus all preparatory equipment.

All of these mills were designed to spin fine combed yarns from Egyptian cottons. Most cotton mills of the Victorian era had their names inscribed in white brick on their towers and on their mill chimneys. Later mills, especially those from the early decades of the 20th century, were distinguished by their own emblems and ornamental brickworks. Swan Lane was particularly well embellished and I believe is now listed as a building of architectural interest. Thank you for continuing to develop the quality of This England. Its appeal to lovers of our green and pleasant land will never diminish. B.W. Thornley, Harrogate, North

Yorkshire.