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Field Visit

Date October 1979

Event ID 817766

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/817766

This mill stands on the E bank of the River Sorn, about 2km NE of Bridgend, and is approached by means of a bridge leading across the river. Immediately S of the bridge are the remains of an earlier carding-mill, perhaps of late 18th- or 19th-century date.

The existing mill, built in 1883, is L-shaped on plan and comprises a gable-ended main block of three storeys, from the S side of which there extends a single-storeyed wing. The building is plainly constructed of local rubble masonry, the openings having undressed surrounds with rough slab-lintels and sills. The upper storeys of the main block incorporate central loading-doors in the E gable, designed initially for admitting machinery, and above the uppermost one there was formerly a beam-and-pulley hoist. The roofs were originally slated, that over the main block incorporating a row of hinged roof-storeys. Above a solid ground floor, the floors are of timber construction, comprising cross-joists and

main beams carried on two intermediate rows of posts.

Driven by water-power, the mill is primarily of interest for the machinery it contains and the traditional methods employed for processing the wool from its raw state, through the various stages of manufacture, to the finished product. Some of the machinery is said to have been brought from the earlier mill, where the grandfather of Mr W B Christie

(weaver at the date of survey) first worked after coming to lslay in 1873 (en.1).

The layout of the machinery and equipment is indicated in the accompanying plan. Within the ground floor of the main block there are situated a teasing machine, two two-cylinder carders and a piecing machine; there are also two power-looms, respectively for making blankets and tweeds, and a pim-winder. All these machines are belt-driven from pulleys

linked to an overhead shaft harnessed to the main-drive from the water-wheel. On the first floor, along the S wall, there is a 90-spindle slubbing billy, and along the centre and the N wall respectively, a 102-spindle and a 118-spindle spinning jenny, all power-driven from pulleys situated at the W end. There is also a small Hattersley pedal-loom of more recent installation. On the second floor there are three hand-looms, a pim-winder and various ancillary pieces of equipment including a banking reel and warping stakes.

Within the wing, an all-iron low breastshot water-wheel with an unusual chain-drive mechanism is situated alongside the S wall, and adjacent to this is a milling machine. In the Dye House, at the other end of the same compartment, there are a range of dye vats, an oven and a boiler, and two tubs for steeping the spun hanks. Beyond, in a later extension, is a Press Room which preserves a hand-made cloth-press.

The various machines and pieces of equipment, some of which are among the last specimens of their kind to survive in Britain, are noted on the plans in their approximate sequence of use. Briefly, the process consists of preparing the raw wool, carding and piecing it into continuous strands, and then spinning it into a suitable yarn, after which it is formed into hanks and washed and dyed ready for weaving. After weaving, the finished cloth, whether of tweeds, rugs or blankets, goes through a Final process of washing and shrinking in the milling machine, following which it is dried on tenter frames, situated on high ground behind the weaver's cottage to the NW.

RCAHMS 1984, visited October 1979.

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