Compare this view of Newton Street with the one I posted in October 2012
Since then, demolition of Carrfield Mill has continued and most of it has gone.
Carrfield Mill stood under the shadow of the adjacent Ashton Brothers Mill until that was demolished in 2008.
Originally known for manufacturing Zorbit terry nappies, it became the home of "Christy Towels". The brand was founded in 1851. Christy is the world's oldest towel manufacturer and is the UK's leading towel brand. Christy invented the first loom to mechanically weave what remains today the basis of the modern towel and is the exclusive supplier of the towels to the world famous Wimbledon Tennis Championship.
The 1 billion USD Welspun Group acquired an 85% interest in Christy for a business valuation of GBP 15.6 m, in July 2006. In 2008 they closed the dyehouse and making-up departments at Hyde and transferred the machinery to a specially designed site at Welspun's Anjar facility in India.
Their UK HQ and sales office remained at Carrfield Mill until 2012 when they took over 12,000 sq ft of offices and showroom facilities at Orbit Developments' Park Square complex in Cheadle.
See a closer view of the last days of the showroom on Hyde Daily Photo.
hello gerald - eileen from bolton here.
ReplyDeletethanks for this fantasic series of photographs - it means alot to me to see the old ashton brothers mill before it all disappears.
it brings back some lovely memories of the friends i used to work with. i worked in the finnishing department, mainly feeding the machinists with nappies and towels so i got to meet alot of people.
my most hated memories are of the very dusty working conditions - with layers of dust on the light fitting like iceing on a cake! freezing cold in winter and stifeling hot in summer - when we had to stop work to go outside for some fresh air and have fresh orange juice. my most vivid memories are finding large cockroaches as i lifted the nappies. it was said that they were imported with the cotton.
i remember in the 1970's when the machines were updated and the old ones were shipped to india which was a very poor country then.
i remember seeing fencing near the main entrance across the road from the church had been pushed to one side by a tree and the trunk had eventually rapped itself around the metal bars as it grew. i was fasinated by this so i sat down one lunch time to draw it. i still have the picture now and it still fasinates me.
by the way gerald - did you know that that the company had a childrens nursery for the women workers who wanted to go back to work after their babies were born?
i also remember when friends thought the "grass was greener on the other side" so to speak - they left the company on a friday to start a new job on a monday somewhere else, only to be back at ashton brothers the following monday. ha! ha! you couldn't do that now.
anyway - thanks again for this.
hope to be in town next week to see for myself
Hi Graham here
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of babies in the 60s 70s gratefull to people who made zorbit Terry nappies were the best out cotton industry was destroyed by the conservative government the same as coal mining industry
By Thatcher!!!!!!!