Broadstone Mill in 1906
Broadstone Spinning Co.Ltd.
Cotton Industry. Mule Spinning mill.
Broadstone No.2 Mill, Broadstone Road, Reddish, Stockport, Cheshire. Grid Reference: SJ891931.
Status: demolished.
For company formation see Broadstone Spinning Co.Ltd. No. I Mill of 1904.
Directors: In December 1908 Sidney Pearson (also director of Pear) appointed in place of late John Smethurst.
At the opening ceremony for the No.1 mill on 28 November 1906 the Chairman indicated that plans for the No.2 mill were well advanced and that loans of about £80,000 had already been received towards it. The company's capital was increased, at a date unknown, from £120,000 to £240,000. John Milne, speaking at the half-yearly meeting in February 1908 claimed that this was the highest capital of any mill in Britain and that the directors only intended calling up £1 per share.
The Building Regulation Plans were passed on 16 November 1906. Construction commenced in February 1907, but a report in the Oldham Chronicle that spinning commenced in December 1907 is probably a hoped for date rather than the actual one. At the half-yearly meeting in February 1908 satisfactory progress was reported and by August out of 54 pairs of mules 13 were at work with another 11 ready to start. A year later, in August 1909, the mill was all at work. A.H. Stott attended half-yearly meetings.
In early 1911, the company got into difficulties and had to adopt a scheme of arrangement. On 6 April 1911 a petition for winding up the company had been presented by Eliza Fielding, Eliza Maud, Mary Skinner and William Bushell Fielding as creditors for money lent to the company. On 1 May 1911 a Petition for a proposed scheme of arrangement was heard before the Vice-Chancellor sitting in the Chancery Court of Lancaster held in Manchester. The Court sanctioned the scheme of arrangement and dismissed the winding up petition.
On 31 March 1911 the company's books showed an adverse balance of £44,547 1 s 1 d and the company's liabilities and creditors were:
Secured
First mortgage and interest secured
on land, mills and machinery £53,716 13 9
Second mortgage to bankers secured
on land, mills and machinery £68,016 8 8
Total £126,733 2 5
Mortgage on uncalled capital
Secured by liens on stock £10,278 11 8
Unsecured £42,981 14 3
Total £176,993 8 4
Loans repayable at short notice
or call £184,430 10 4
Trade debts £121,330 14 1
Total £305,761 4 5
There were 531 loanholders, 315 shareholders and 117 trade and other unsecured shareholders. On 3 April 1911 a third mortgage on the Company's land, mills and machinery was granted to certain unsecured creditors. It was stated that the company was established during a trade depression and its difficulties were increased by the exceptionally small Egyptian and Sea Island crop of 1909-10. Capital to discharge withdrawn loan capital and unsecured debts was impossible to find.
The scheme of arrangement allowed for a new Board of Directors and for conversion of 12s6d in the £ of loans into Cumulative Preference Shares bearing interest at 5½%, the remaining 7s6d in the £ to rank as unsecured debts carrying interest at 5%. Ordinary shareholders were to have no dividend for 5 years.
DESCRIPTION.
In appearance and general layout No.2 was a mirror image of No. 1, the two forming a double mill. There were two adjoining engine houses and two chimneys. Why two chimneys were constructed is puzzling, bearing in mind that the two mills of the contemporary Dove Spinning Co.Ltd. were to have only one chimney and that Baytree and Laurel shared a chimney.
The major difference between the two is that No.2 had an extension at basement level on the opposite side to the Card Shed, which contained a mule room which continued into the basement.
The main mill was 12 bays wide, plus rope race, by 9 deep. The rope race is 12 feet wide. At 2nd story level it was 266 feet wide by 137 feet deep. Basic bay dimensions 22 feet by 15 feet 6 inches. The single storey card shed extension at ground floor level extended the whole width of the mill and was 5 bays, 69 feet deep. It had a further one bay, 13ft 6in, deep extension at the eastern end, extending the width of 5 bays.
The cellar mule room extended over 6 bays at the eastern end and was four bays deep.
The heights and floor uses were:
Cellar: Mule Room 14ft.
Conditioning Cellar 9ft. Mixing Room. Cotton Room. Dust Cellar. Warehouse & packing.
lst storey (ground floor): 16ft
Card Room & Shed.
Blowing Room (in extension).
2nd storey: 14ft 3in lst spinning room.
3rd storey: 13ft 9in 2nd spinning room.
4th storey: 13ft 9in 3rd spinning room.
5th storey: 13ft 10¼in 4th spinning room.
The water tower was at the south-east corner and contained staircase, w.c's and hoist. At the bottom was a single storey watch house.
Spinning room floors: 12in by 6in double main rolled steel beams, 51/2in by 2in transverse joists at 2 feet centres; 1½in floor boards on 2½in pugging on 5½in of 6 to I concrete.
Card Room floor: 14in by 6in double steel beams; lin Euboeolith flooring on 7 1/2in of 6 to I concrete. Roof: 12in by 6in steel beams (no further detail given).
Mule & Card Shed roofs: 12in by 6in rolled steel beams; British asphalt lin thick on ½in floating on 6in concrete.
Patent roof lights between main mill and Card Shed.
Chimney with Stott & Sons usual decorated top with Broadstone monogram inlaid in ivory white and glazed brick. Height 75 yards above fire hole door level. Square base to 33ft. Rest circular tapering from 18ft to I Oft l0in diameter. Flue 8ft diameter. Inner casing wall to approx. 88ft.
Stott & Sons
Engines: George Saxon; Inverted Vertical Triple-Expansion; Cylinders 22", 36" & 56" by 4'; Corliss valves; 78½rpm; 160psi; 1500hp. These were the same as No. l Mill.
Four 30ft by 8ft boilers.
All machinery in No.2 mill was again supplied by John Hetherington & Co.Ltd. and it held 140,000 spindles, giving a total of 265,000 for the two mills.
Closed 1959 and demolished. References.
1. Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, Building Regulation Plans, 5864. [Authority]
2. Broadstone Cotton Spinning Company Limited, Reddish, Stockport; Stockport Advertiser, 26 May 1905, 4, c.4-7.
3. Broadstone Cotton Spinning Company Limited'; Stockport Advertiser, 30 November 1906, 5, c.4-6.
4. 'Broadstone Cotton Spinning Co.Ltd., Half-yearly meeting', Stockport Advertiser, 7 February 1908, 4, c.8.
5. 'Commercial Notes'; Oldham Chronicle; 15 February 1908; 12, c.6.
6. 'Scene at Reddish Mill ; Stockport Advertiser, 28 February 1908, 5, c.5.
7. 'Broadstone Cotton Spinning Co.Ltd., Half-yearly meeting', Stockport Advertiser, 7 August
1908, 7, c.7.
8. 'Commercial Notes'; Oldham Chronicle; 26 December 1908; 12, c.4.
'Broadstone Cotton Spinning Co.Ltd., Half-yearly meeting' Stockport Advertiser, 5 February 1909, 5, c.5.
10. 'Broadstone Cotton Spinning Co.Ltd., Half-yearly meeting', Stockport Advertiser, 6 August 1909, 3, c.4.
11. 'Commercial Notes'; Oldham Chronicle; 6 May 1911; 12, c.7.
12. Broadstone Cotton Spinning Co.Ltd., New Scheme of Arrangement', Stockport Advertiser, 19 May 1911, 5, c. 5 & 6.
13. Review of the Year - The Local Cotton Trade', Stockport Advertiser, 29 December 1911, 7, c.3 & 4. Gives details of scheme of arrangement.
14. John Hetherington & Sons; Illustrated Catalogue of Cotton Spinning Machinery; Manchester; 1931; pp. 375 (photograph of mills).
15. G.Watkins; The Textile Mill Engine; Volume 2; David & Charles, Newton Abbot; 1971; pp.78, 80 (plate 53).