5:30pm Friday 12th March 2010
This Sunday, Barnoldswick will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the opening of the 13th and final mill to be built in the town - Bancroft Mill, on Gillians Lane. Daryl Ames looks at its history.
It’s a bit of a landmark, said Bancroft Mill Engine Trust secretary Jim Gill, adding: “The mill opened on March 13, 1920, so when we celebrate this Sunday it will be 90 years old and a day. To have a mill which ran and produced cotton for 59 years and to have an engine running up-to-date is an achievement.”
Although Bancroft Mill was not opened until 1920, the idea was masterminded by experienced weaver James Nutter, of Barnoldswick.
Mr Nutter, who was born in Howgill, near Rimington, in 1845, began working in a local shoddy mill from the age of eight, earning about 5p a week. He moved to Barnoldswick at the age of ten and then moved around for a few years, primarily working as a wool spinner. He married Mary Jane Edmondson in 1868.
Trust committee member Harry Moore said Mr Nutter probably got fed up with the textiles industry when young and became a successful salesman, selling books door to door. By 1876 he had saved enough money to start a textiles venture of his own, running 56 looms at Coates Mill, near Stock Beck.
He also had stints at Clough Mill, Long Ing Shed and Calf Hall Shed, until 1890 when Bankfield Shed – now the Rolls-Royce site – opened. There he was responsible for 900 looms, but his dream was always to build his own mill.
By 1914 plans were in hand to build Bancroft Mill, but when war broke out the work had to be put on hold. But Mr Nutter would never see his dream become reality, as he died on February 14, 1914.
However, his legacy was to live on through his wife, seven sons, daughter and 23 grandchildren.
After the war, work continued on Bancroft Mill and it was officially opened on March 13 1920, with much fanfare. At the ceremony, Mr Nutter’s daughter Eliza was the first person to start the mill’s now famous steam engine. The mill engine, with its two cylinders and 16-feet flywheel can generate over 600 horsepower and originally drove some 1,250 weaving looms via its 263-feet main shaft.
The Bancroft Mill engine is a cross compound Corliss valve that condenses steam. The two above-mentioned cylinders were named after the mill founder and his wife, a custom at the time.
The high-pressure cylinder “James” has a bore of 17 inches with a stroke of four feet. The low-pressure cylinder “Mary Jane” has a 34-inch bore and a stroke of four feet. Cross compound engines are so-named because the cylinders and cranks are on either side of the flywheel and the steam crosses from the high to the low pressure cylinder.
Steam from the boiler, at 40lbs per square inch (originally 160lb psi), is first expanded in the high-pressure cylinder and “James” turns the flywheel over. There is still more energy in the steam and it is passed across to the low pressure cylinder “Mary Jane”, and the same steam is re-used to give the flywheel a further turn. The exhaust steam is then passed to a condenser to be turned back into re-usable water.
Bancroft’s mill engine was installed in 1920 and ran a continuous reliable service through to 1978 when the cotton mill closed. In its heyday during the Second World War, the mill produced 200,000 yards of cloth in a week.
At that time, said Trust committee member Harry Moore, the mill would have employed 300 people, including weavers, sizers and maintenance staff.
“During the war, the mill would have woven a lot of cloth for the armed services,” he added.
But then things changed for Bancroft and other mills.
“After the war, things started to go downhill,” said Mr Gill. “Government regulation killed the industry. It seemed to have a hidden agenda to do away with wool and cotton mills. They introduced tariffs and started importing clothing.”
Although the Nutters continued to run the mill, it was eventually bought by a Manchester company.
Mr Moore said before the mill closed in 1978, the new owners were having financial difficulties and not a penny had been spent on the machinery for a few years.
The Bancroft Mill Engine Trust was formed in 1980 to preserve the industrial heritage of the last working steam mill engine in the area.
By then the weaving shed, looms, warehouse and other buildings had been demolished. The remaining buildings and their contents were provided to the Trust by Pendle Council and the English Tourist Board.
After the Trust was formed, there was a period where members had very limited access to the site and the machinery deteriorated.
On October 23 1981, the keys were formally handed over and work started to clean up the site and remove surface rust from the engine and other machinery. After a few months of hectic work during the winter, the museum opened its doors and the engine was successfully steamed again, this time for the public on April 3 1982. The prime objectives of the Trust had been achieved, although there was much work in store for the future.
Mr Gill has been secretary for the Trust for 19 years and, during that time, the museum has secured £200,000 in grant money to make various improvements.
One of the most important moments in the trust’s history was providing a home for a 1901 Smith Bros and Eastwood tandem compound engine which powered the looms at Cross Lane Mill, Low Bradley, for 77 years.
The rare engine was in danger of being scrapped, but its owner wanted to see it preserved and it was disassembled and transported to a garage at Bancroft Mill in 2003.
Talks were then held between the engine owner and the Trust, which resulted in a plan to re-erect the engine at Bancroft Mill as an added attraction, with the hope of eventually making it steam again.
However, that could be some time, as Mr Gill admitted: “It’s a big job putting it back together. Hopefully the public will see a little bit more added to it each time they visit. It could take 8,000 to 10,000 man hours to complete, but we’ve already done a lot of work on the various parts.”
Bancroft Mill is a working museum and is open to the public with free entry most Saturdays throughout the year from 11am to 3pm.
The engine will be in full steam between 1pm and 4.30pm on many Sundays from March to early December.
The museum had record attendances during its final two steaming days in 2009, which was its highest figure in almost 30 years.
* For more information call 01282 865626 or visit bancroftmill.org.uk
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