Brunswick Mill, Ancoats is a former cotton spinning mill on Bradford Road in Ancoats, Manchester, England. The mill was built around 1840, part of a group of mills built along the

Ashton Canal The Ashton Canal is a canal in Greater Manchester, England, linking Manchester with Ashton-under-Lyne. Route The Ashton leaves the Rochdale Canal at Ducie St. Junction in central Manchester, and climbs for through 18 locks, passing thro ...

, and at that time it was one of the country's largest mills. It was built round a quadrangle, a seven-storey block facing the canal. It was taken over by the

Lancashire Cotton Corporation The Lancashire Cotton Corporation was a company set up by the Bank of England in 1929, to rescue the Lancashire spinning industry by means of horizontal rationalisation. In merged 105 companies, ending up in 1950 with 53 operating mills. It wa ...

in the 1930s and passed to

Courtaulds Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. It was established in 1794 and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds ...

in 1964. Production finished in 1967. It was a seven-storey mill with 35 loading bays facing directly onto the canal, with a smaller three story block of warehouses and offices backing onto Bradford Road. The Brunswick Mill was one of the largest in Britain at that time and by the 1850s held some 276 carding machines, and 77,000 mule spindles. 20 drawing frames, fifty slubbing frames and eighty one roving frames.

Location

Ancoats is an

inner city The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists some ...

area of Manchester, in North West England, next to the Northern Quarter and the northern part of Manchester's commercial centre. Historically a part of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, Ancoats became one of the cradles of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, and has been called "the world's first industrial suburb". From the late-18th century, Ancoats became a thriving industrial district and from 1798 has been served by the

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and

s facilitating the movement of

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

and finished goods. All Manchester's major railway stations were on the boundaries of Ancoats: Ancoats railway station on the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

, Ducie Street railway station and

Manchester London Road railway station Manchester Piccadilly is the principal railway station in Manchester, England. Opened as Store Street in 1842, it was renamed Manchester London Road in 1847 and became Manchester Piccadilly in 1960. Located to the south-east of Manchester city ...

on the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...

Cheshire Lines Committee The Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) was formed in the 1860s and became the second-largest joint railway in Great Britain. The committee, which was often styled the Cheshire Lines Railway, operated of track in the then counties of Lancashire a ...

, Oldham Road railway station and Victoria Station on the

Manchester and Leeds Railway The Manchester and Leeds Railway was a British railway company that built a line from Manchester to Normanton where it made a junction with the North Midland Railway, over which it relied on running powers to access Leeds. The line followed the ...

, Exchange station on the London and North Western Railway.

Background

Surveying for the Rochdale Canal was carried out by

James Brindley James Brindley (1716 – 27 September 1772) was an English engineer. He was born in Tunstead, Derbyshire, and lived much of his life in Leek, Staffordshire, becoming one of the most notable engineers of the 18th century. Early life Born i ...

in 1765. The knowledge that its construction would make the transport of raw materials and finished goods more convenient, gave industrialists the confidence to build cotton mills. The first mills were built in Ancoats as early as 1790. In 1792 commissioners were appointed to improve the township of Manchester which included Ancoats. Towards the end of the 18th century steam power was used to power the cotton mills.

Murray's Mills Murrays' Mills is a complex of former cotton mills on land between Jersey Street and the Rochdale Canal in the district of Ancoats, Manchester, England. The mills were built for brothers Adam and George Murray. The first mill on the site, Old ...

were built next to the Rochdale canal on Union Street (now Redhill Street) off

Great Ancoats Street Great Ancoats Street is a street in the inner suburb of Ancoats, Manchester, England. A number of cotton mills built in the early and mid-Victorian period are nearby, some of which have been converted into residential or office buildings, such ...

, by Adam and George Murray in 1798 and were known as Ancoats Mills when they were operated by McConnel & Company Ltd. The streets of Ancoats were laid out during the latter part of the 18th century, with little development taking place other than small houses and shops along

and Oldham Road. The

was linked to the Rochdale Canal at the Piccadilly Basin in 1798. From the opening of the canals, development of mills continued on a much larger scale. Mills in Ancoats included, Victoria Mills, Wellington Mill, Brunswick Mill, India Mills, Dolton Mills, Lonsdale Mills, Phoenix Mill, Lloydsfield Mill and Sedgewick Mill, Decker Mill (owned by the Murray brothers), New Mill, Beehive Mill, Little Mill, Paragon Mill, Royal Mill and Pin Mill. The mill structure was classified as a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

in June 1994.

Power

*Double beam *Horizontal *Electricity

Equipment

The Brunswick Mill was one of the largest in Britain at that time and by the 1850s held some 276 carding machines, and 77,000 mule spindles, 20 drawing frames, fifty slubbing frames and eighty one roving frames.

Owners

*George Bannerman *Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s–1964) *Courtaulds *Maryland Securities The building is now used by a variety of businesses.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

www.cottontown.org
* {{Lancashire Cotton Corporation Textile mills in Manchester Former textile mills in the United Kingdom Textile mills owned by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation Buildings and structures completed in 1840 1840 establishments in England Grade II listed buildings in Manchester Grade II listed industrial buildings