A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



and cloths for pianos, carriages, and billiard-tables. 

 As the use of livery has greatly decreased of late, 

 some enterprising firms have turned their at- 

 tention with great success to motor caps and 

 coatings. 



There are now eleven surviving firms of 

 cloth manufacturers, whose mills lie mainly in 

 Stroud and its immediate neighbourhood. Dud- 

 bridge Mills are owned by Messrs. Apperly, 

 Curtis & Co. whose business was established in 

 1794 by the grandfather of the present director, 

 Mr. Alfred Apperly. They were rebuilt after 

 the destruction of the old mills by fire in 1891, 

 and are now some of the largest clothworks in 

 the west of England. Their machinery is 

 thoroughly up-to-date, and includes a self-acting 

 feed for the carding machine, invented in 1851 

 by Mr. James Apperly and Mr. William Clis- 

 sold. Of the ' Hydea ' cloth manufactured by 

 this firm mention has already been made ; their 

 other chief speciality is travelling-rugs, woven 

 by a process of their own. They have their 

 own dye-works on the premises, and do much 

 of the dyeing required by other manufacturers. 

 The only other large dye-works of the district 

 are at Bowbridge, and are the property of 

 Messrs. Strachan & Co. At their two cloth- 

 mills, Lodgemore and Frome Hall, this latter 

 firm manufacture dark and light cloth respec- 

 tively, as it is all-important to the colour of 

 light materials that they should be made in a 

 different room from dark ones. Their products 

 are mainly serges, liveries, box and billiard cloth, 

 and riding cords. They are one of the few firms 

 who still employ water-power in one department. 

 At Lightpill Mills Messrs. Roberts, Jowlings & 

 Co., established about 1850, carry on a smaller 

 but fairly flourishing business, with thoroughly 

 good machinery. Their cloths are mainly of 

 the regular West of England type, and are still 

 racked on the old plan, which turns out better 

 results for heavy cloths than more modern rapid 

 methods. The especial feature of these mills 

 is the weaving of heavy beavers, to which a 

 whole shed, with peculiarly heavy machinery, is 

 devoted. Very similar styles of cloth, on a 

 slightly smaller scale, are turned out by Messrs. 

 Howard & Powell, at Wallbridge Mill, which 

 has been working for at least eighty years. 



The foregoing mills all stand conveniently 

 close to the Stroud Canal and to the Midland 

 and Great Western Railways. A little further 

 out on the north, or Slade side of the town, 

 stand Woodlands Mills, lately purchased by a 

 Welshman, Mr. Humphreys. By adapting him- 

 self to the modern taste for tweeds and home- 

 spuns, and by importing a few workmen from 

 his flannel factory in Wales to instruct the 

 native workmen in new methods, he has estab- 

 lished a thriving business, mainly with London 

 and Manchester. A very large number of 

 his looms are devoted to making material for 

 motor-caps. 



On the opposite side of the town stand 

 Brimscombe Mills, the property of Messrs. P. C. 

 Evans & Co. Established in 1 8 5 5, they have been 

 under the direction of five generations of the 

 Evans family. Large improvements have been 

 made recently, including the establishment of 

 the first worsted-spinning plant of the district. 

 At Minchinhampton, high up the valley of the 

 Frome, is Longfords Mill, which has been for 

 three centuries in the hands of the Playnes, 

 originally a French Protestant family. 



On a smaller stream, to the west of Stroud, 

 are Ebley and Stanley Mills, the property of 

 Messrs. Marling & Co., and Eastington Mill. 

 Here Messrs. Hooper & Co. weave white 

 cricketing flannels and white buckskins, besides 

 the usual smooth cloth of the neighbourhood. 

 Another Stonehouse firm (Messrs. R. S. Davies 

 & Sons), owning two mills, has just closed a 

 career begun in 1798. 



The many cloth-mills formerly existing at 

 Dursley and Wotton under Edge are now repre- 

 sented by two large firms. In the Nind Mills, 

 Wotton under Edge, Messrs. Millman, Hunt & 

 Co. possess a building that has been in use for 

 three centuries. In 1893 they also took over 

 the management of a neighbouring mill at Char- 

 field. They are fortunate in their supply of 

 water-power, which is sufficient to drive three 

 large water-wheels. Their speciality is the 

 manufacture of printers' blanketings. Cam 

 Mills, Dursley, the property of Messrs. Hunt 

 & Winterbotham, are some of the largest in the 

 whole district, covering an area of eight acres, 

 and employing over four hundred operatives. 

 Within the last six or seven years they have 

 been able to make extensive improvements, in- 

 cluding special cottages for their work-people. 

 Their works are self-contained, with carpenters' 

 and fitters' shops attached to them. They 

 weave almost every style of cloth produced in 

 the Stroud Valley, including some made of pure 

 English wool. 



To turn to the condition of the operatives 

 employed in the cloth manufacture, perhaps the 

 first point to be noticed is the preponderance of 

 female over male workers, in the proportion of 

 about five to three. This feature dates pro- 

 bably from the introduction of the power-loom, 

 when, as has been mentioned, women stepped 

 in to fill the place of the more recalcitrant men. 

 Wages are difficult to estimate, as every process 

 of the manufacture is paid at a different rate and 

 on a different scale. The elements taken into 

 consideration in weaving, for instance, are the rate 

 at which the loom runs, the number of picks per 

 inch of woven cloth, and the number of shuttles 

 or other complications of the process. Wages are 

 paid sometimes by the week, but more often by 

 the piece, and vary from $s. to ijs. for female 

 workers, and from 15*. to 35*. for males. The 

 average weekly earnings, however, would be 1 2s. 

 or 15*. in the case of a woman, and iSs. or 20s. 



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