Asa Lees was a firm of textile machine manufacturers in

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

, Lancashire. Their headquarters was the Soho Iron Works, Greenacres. It was second only in size to Platt Brothers.

Early history

Samuel Lees founded a roller making works in the 1790s, it was called the Soho Works. His second son Asa Lees (1816–62) inherited the premises. He expanded the business, exporting

fustian Fustian is a variety of heavy cloth woven from cotton, chiefly prepared for menswear. History and use Known in Late Latin as ''fustaneum'' or ''fustanum'' and in Medieval Latin as ''pannus fustāneus'' ('fustian cloth') or ''tela fustāne ...

power loom A power loom is a mechanized loom. Shuttle looms The main components of the loom are the warp beam, heddles, harnesses, shuttle, reed, and takeup roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes shedding, picking, battening and taking-up operations ...

s to

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. He abandoned looms to concentrate on manufacturing preparation and spinning machinery. The Soho Cotton mills was converted to a Mule carriage works. Asa Lees became a limited company in 1868, four years after Platts and the shares were quoted on the Oldham share market until the 1890s. It never published its accounts, though its dividends were consistently higher than Platts, and remained profitable in 1928 when Platts made a loss. They were conservative in their trading, dealing only with reliable firms. They did not push for exports. They experienced rapid expansion in the 1880s under the management of Robert Taylor (1823–1912) and production peaked in 1906 when they were employing 3000 men.

Later history

In the recession of the 1930s, Platt Brothers, Howard and Bullough, Brooks and Doxey, Asa Lees, Dobson and Barlow, Joseph Hibbert, John Hetherington and Tweedales and Smalley merged to become Textile Machinery Makers Ltd., but the individual units continued to trade under their own names until the 1970, when they were rationalised into one company called Platt UK Ltd. In 1991 the company name changed to Platt Saco Lowell.

The premises

*Soho Iron Works - Greenacres SD 939053 *

References

{{Authority control Industrial Revolution Companies based in Oldham Spinning English inventors Textile manufacturers of England Engineering companies of England Textile machinery manufacturers