Woollen Cloth Mills and Factories
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At times there were between 30 and 40 buildings that were engaged in the various processes woollen cloth manufacture in Bradford and the Hundred, ranging from large factories down to small workshops. Many have not survived, of course.
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Read MoreWinsley Quarries
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Murhill Quarries lie to the west of the village of Winsley, on the edge of the plateau level. A larger upper quarry was in 1905 the site for the Winsley Sanatorium, now Avon Park retirement village.
Stone from Murhill was used for the façade of Bristol Temple Meads Station.
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Westwood Quarries
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The steep hillside above Avoncliff has been extensively quarried for Bath Stone. Underground workings that cover large areas open from adits near the top.
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Avoncliff Quarry, despite not being worked for a long time, retains several clear faces, showing the...
Read MoreStone Quarrying
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The Cotswold Hills around Bradford have been quarried for limestone from the Roman period and even earlier. In the early days most of the stones used were those that were coarse and shelly and weathered well. For high-prestige buildings, such as churches, more expensive ashlar was used. Ashlar is freestone that can easily be sawn into precisely...
Read MoreBradford Quarries
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Stone quarries can be found all round Bradford town, including extensive underground workings.
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Bridge Street Quarry had an area of open working, with an adit that went into the hillside under St Margaret’s Hill. These workings must have...
Read MoreLimpley Stoke Quarries
Although there are signs of small-scale quarrying around the hill that forms most of Limpley Stoke, the main working is underground. Stoke Quarry is operated by the Bath Stone Group. Recent use of Stoke stone can be seen in the modern Bath Spa building and the facing of the Southgate development in Bath.
The photographs were taken during a visit by Bradford on Avon...
Read MoreRoyal Enfield Motorcycles
In June 1941, during the Second World War, part of the Royal Enfield Company moved from Redditch in Worcestershire to old underground stone workings at Westwood Quarry. In the safety of the quarry the firm carried out the manufacture of Type 3 predictor sights for anti-aircraft guns and control equipment for Bofors guns.
At the end of the war the company made...
Read MoreHolt Leather Industry
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The J. & T. Beaven leather and glove company was founded, according to tradition, in Holt in 1770, although members of the family had been working leather there for some time before. It became a limited company in 1919 with a capital of £50,000 and operated a wool department until 1954 and leather glove-making until...
Read MoreBeavens’ of Holt Oral History Project
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The Museum’s Oral History Group is embarking on a project to record memories of the J.&T. Beaven leather and glove factory in Holt. They are hoping to find and interview as many former workers as possible.
Anybody who would like to help should telephone Jenny Arkell on 01225 782061.
See an article about...
Read MoreOld Photographs: The Rubber Works
Views of the works of the Spencer Moulton rubber company’s Kingston Mills, mostly from just after the First World War.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger view.
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The Museum Collection: the woollen cloth industry
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Al the toun of Bradeford stondith by clooth-making -John Leland c1540
Much of Bradford’s past prosperity and many of the fine buildings in the town and vicinity were due to the woollen cloth industry. Visitors who have heard of this are often surprised that there is so little in...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: the Rubber Industry
Bradford on Avon was the birthplace of the rubber industry in this country. In 1848 Stephen Moulton, an Englishman living in New York and a friend of Charles Goodyear, came back and set up a factory to apply Goodyear’s discovery of vulcanisation in the redundant Kingston Mill. Moulton merged with a London company later in the 19th century, becoming George Spencer, Moulton &...
Read MoreOld photographs: Work
Click on the thumbnail pictures to get a bigger view
The staff of William Dotesio’s printing works outside the building in Silver Street in the 1920s. The firm was first Dotesio & Todd, in the 1890s as printers and account book manufacturers of Bradford and of Lowestoft in Norfolk. In the later 20th century, after William’s death in 1947, it...
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: Brewing
Click on the thumbnail pictures to get a bigger view
Brewing beer went from the small-scale of brewhouses at the back of the pub to a large industry in Bradford in the 19th century. Three common brewers -those supplying a number of pubs- were operating here at one time.
Click on the thumbnail pictures for a bigger view....
Read MoreThe Museum Collection: quarrying and stone-masons
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Bradford on Avon Museum is building up a collection of the specialised tools that were used in quarrying stone, usually under the ground, or shaping the stone blocks in the workshop of a banker mason at the quarry and by a builder mason on site.
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The Museum Collection: Iron & brass foundry
Bradford on Avon Museum has a collection of cast iron objects that were made by the three iron foundries that worked in the town. Mostly these are items of street furniture: gully gratings, manhole covers and stop valve covers. Although the Museum is fortunate to have them, they are better displayed in situ in Bradford’s streets. However, they are quickly being...
Read MoreBed Manufacture
Beds were made in a couple of places in the Bradford area. Sawtell’s factory was at the Midlands, in Holt and E.A. Gore was in Broughton Gifford. The industry is now carried on in neighbouring Trowbridge.
Read MoreBrewing
W.R. Harding W.R. Harding advertised as brewer, wine & spirit merchant, brewing home-brewed beer, ales and stout as well as selling Bass’s Ales and Oakhill Invalid Double Stout in casks and bottle in 1897 (Dotesio’s Diamond Jubilee booklet). 1899 directory: William Robert Harding at King’s Arms, brewer He sold to S. Ruddle & Sons around 1900. He may have been the...
Read MoreThe Rubber Industry
Apart from Macintosh in Glasgow, the rubber industry in this country began in Bradford in 1848 when Stephen Moulton brought Charles Goodyear’s process across from the USA.
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