Stroudwater Textile Trust

About the Trust

The Stroudwater Textile Trust was established in 1999 as successor to the Friends of Stroud Museum Textile Group. A group of local people wanted to promote awareness of the past importance of the woollen industry in the Stroud Valleys and to celebrate contemporary textiles. {gallery /} Read More ...

Dunkirk Mill Centre

The Dunkirk Mill Centre offers a wonderful opportunity to see a see a massive working water wheel directly powering a rare piece of historic textile machinery. The overshot wheel, twelve feet wide and thirteen feet in diameter, was installed in the mill in 1855 {gallery /} Read More ...

Opening Dates 2012

The full programme of open days for all the Mills is now available. The details of each Mill plus information about other scheduled activities can be found under Visit Us on the main menu, or use the link provided here{gallery /} Read More ...

Rivers of Cloth DVD

Now available for £10 – our DVD Rivers of Cloth

Using archive film and the recorded voices of those who worked in the industry it tells the story of the woollen mills of Stroud and the surrounding area. It is available in bookshops and tourist information centres in Stroud and Nailsworth, Museum in the Park, Stroud and at the shop in Chalford. It can be ordered direct by sending a cheque, payable to Stroudwater Textile Trust, to Anthony Burton, 31 Lansdown Stroud GL5 1BG. It is available for £8.50 to members of the Trust. {gallery /}

Stroud Made It

Thursday, 29 March 2012 10:30

We are presenting a look back to when the mills were busy manufacturing sites with a rich variety of industries steaming away making an unimaginable variety of items that were sent across the world. These were innovative businesses, some sadly long gone and in danger of being forgotten.

Left: Ribbons from Tubbs Lewis sample book, about 1898, courtesy Wotton under Edge Heritage Centre.

The exhibition highlights some of the firms that made the district a sort of little West Riding of Yorkshire from about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee through the 1920s and ‘30s to the ‘70s.

Right: Deckchair made for P&O liners in the 1920s and ‘30s at Ebley Oil Mills, courtesy Stroud Museum in the Park.

It is an exaggeration to say “You name it, Stroud made it” but the exhibition demonstrates how even with a small selection of firms the variety of local products carried the names of local firms across the world. They were visited by or supplied royalty and of course provided materials for sport which continue to bring pleasure to many thousands of people.

Location: Herbert’s Shop in the Merrywalks Shopping Centre.

Dates: Thursday 19th to Saturday 28th April (closed Sunday)

Times: 10am to 4 pm.

The Exhibition is part of the Festival of Manufacturing & Engineering.

The Niblett sisters of Ham Mill demonstrating carpet mending at the previous
Exhibition of Stroud Industry at the Subscription Rooms 1947

StroudMadeIt3

A Slight Hint of Spring?

Thursday, 09 February 2012 14:04

Yes, there is something warmer to look forward to in this winter cold: the Mills Open leaflet has been published and is in the process to going to Tourist Information Offices, libraries etc.

The steam engine at St Mary’s Mill will now be demonstrated turning thanks to the efforts of our volunteer Barry Harrison. Even if you have already been there it is a joy to see the flywheel and pistons in motion.

Rolls Royce 20 – 25 Gurney Nutting saloon of 1929/35

The exhibition in April is Stroud Made It, open, free, from 19th to 28th April at Merrywalks. Opening times 10am to 3pm. It will show some of the textile, metal and wood products of the Valleys, demonstrating the great variety of uses the mill sites have been put to other the last 150 years or so. Some of these were small enterprises that have long disappeared. So what is the relevance of the magnificent Rolls Royce? Visit us to find out!

There is an extra walk, on Saturday 10th March. Starting from the Subscription Rooms in Stroud at 11am it will tell stories from around the early 1800s to the Victorian times while walking round the 21st century streets. Attendance is free, as is the Jubilee walk.

There is an exhibition coming up from 1st to 13th October (not Sunday) about Lodgemore Mill’s history. A medieval fulling mill it is still at work producing fine textiles so there is a great story to tell. See more in due course.

New photos!!

Monday, 18 April 2011 13:30

A valuable collection of black & white photographs have been donated to the Trust by author & academic Dr Jacqueline Sarsby. Taken in 1989/90 they show the processes being carried out in Longfords Mill during its final year.

Many are close up studies of spinning on a mule; especially welcome now spinning mules have disappeared from the area.

They also convey the atmosphere of the last stage of a mill that in the 1970s was making three quarters of all the tennis ball covers made outside the USA. So after our popular exhibition on the mill in 2009 we now have the faces of those who worked there to the end!

Thank you very much Jacquie!

Interesting Cloths From Our Collection

Thursday, 17 March 2011 10:23

Note the background cloth displayed is material for lining the interior of the roof of Rolls Royces made by Winterbotham Strachan & Playne in the 1980s. We have correspondence in 1932 between William Playne & Co of Longfords Mill & Thrupp & Maberly motor agents & body builders of Rolls Royces who ordered 2 rolls of West of England cloth urgently. The customer? – the Prince of Wales!

This demonstrates how Stroud, so famous for making scarlet cloth, actually made a wide & varying range of materials through the centuries

Cricket Flannel

Messrs Hunt & Winterbotham of Cam Mill made many fine cloths; they were especially proud of their Indian Whip material developed just before the First World War. Its hard wearing qualities made it greatly in demand for army officers.

This small sample of cricket flannel reflects the brother’s enthusiasm for cricket – even if the score sheets suggest they weren’t very good at it. It is fine & dense & clearly was popular with the Australian teams of 1899 & 1921.

Synthetic Materials

Marling & Evans of Ebley & Stanley Mills experimented with synthetic materials after the Second World War. They chopped up the strands & used their woollen cloth making cards, mules & looms to make cloths for clothing, specialist filter cloths, the parachute for the Ariane space rocket & these two materials:

Teflon & Holes in the Heart: This sample was made as a chemically inert filter fabric. However the Birmingham Children’s Heart Hospital experimented with it in patching hole in the heart conditions. Today Teflon is used in many surgical operations.

Nomex & Niki Lauda: This material is fire resistant & Marlings made it into fireproof clothing for racing car drivers. It was a very soon tested by Niki Lauda when he crashed horrifically in the Nurburgring Grand Prix in 1976. It helped him survive as it protected his body. Nomex is still used in racing – it is both fireproof & colourful. Another client of Marlings was the R.A.F’s Red Arrows team of flying aces.

January at Gigg Mill - update

Monday, 02 January 2012 11:11

Due to building work at the mill the Weaving Shed at Gigg Mill will not open on Saturday 14th January 2012. We apologise for any disappointment this causes.

Please note it will be open on Saturday 18th February.

Meanwhile we wish you: Happy New Year!

Well Done Dunkirk

Monday, 18 April 2011 13:21

The residents at the Mill have added another achievement to their magnificent restoration of the mill pond. They have got one of the wheels in the Middlemore Mill lobby, with parts dating to around the 1820s, turning again.

Keith Browne’s dab hand with grease, John Farrington’s engineering know-how & Nigel Brown’s determination have got it turning almost silently with a small flow of water. Certainly they are proving good custodians of their magnificent mill.

This means that groups that book to visit the mill centre & its wheels should also be able to enjoy watching a second wheel turn.

The overshot wheel showing the restored wooden spokes & the rim drive which still awaits its cogs.

More Articles...

St Mary’s Mill: driving the steam engine

Go to You Tube to see the Tangye steam engine moving again with all its grace. Sadly it is not being driven by steam but the ingenious solution created by Trust volunteer Barry Harrison at least gives it a chance to show its paces. Remember to have the sound on; Barry has ideas on how to reduce the squeal!

When those on the Industrial Chalford & St Mary’s Walk saw what Barry had literally just got going they broke into spontaneous applause.

The Trust is very grateful to the Northern Steam Engine Society for its generous advice. We expect the engine to be working smoothly for the 2012 season of mill openings when it will be the only ‘working’ local steam engine.

Dunkirk Images

Have a look at You Tube to see the Victorian machinery working. Remember to have the sound on!

The waterwheel requires a ton of water to get it moving and you may just hear the response of spectators as it starts. It was made by the firm of J & H Ferrabee of Phoenix Ironworks, Thrupp. It drives the following machinery:

The Yorkshire teasel raising gig is started by a fast and loose mechanism from a local mill. It is raising the nap on a piece of snooker cloth – the heir to the broadcloth manufactured locally for so many centuries.

The milling machine replaced the fulling stocks and was also made by the Ferrabees. It continued working locally until the 1980s and has been adapted to start with a locally made clutch.

Useful Local Links

There are many links available from the Links tab on the main menu. A few local ones that may be of interest are included below:

The Cotswold - Stroud District

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