Bridge Street Mills, Bayley Street Mills & Clarence Mill

Stalybridge, Tameside

The former Bridge Street Mills (53.48131, -2.06375) were located on the south-east side of Bridge St, directly opposite the former Bayley Street Mills (53.4819, -2.06565). Clarence Mill is on the south side of Bayley St on the corner of Clarence St (53.48312, -2.07264). Bridge Street Mills were about 155-yards distant from Bayley Street Mills on the eastern side and Clarence Mill was about 530-yards distant on the opposite side of the river Tame. The company also had a warehouse on Mosley St, Manchester.

Clarence Mill viewed looking eastwards from the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

This mill complex was owned by the Bayley Brothers, William (1802-1891), Henry (1804-1875), and Charles James (1807-1861), and the company was styled as William Bayley & Brothers. Bridge Street Mills were built in c.1812 and inherited by the brothers from their mother. Bayley Street Mills were built in the early 1830s on a plot of land known as ‘The Stakes’ and Clarence Mill was built in 1862/63.

Left: William Bayley, & right, Henry Bayley.

Bayley Street Mills were integrated for spinning and weaving and they were designed by Sir William Fairbairn. The principal building was 2-storeys with 1,000 looms on the ground floor and 23,000 mule spindles on the first floor. Power was provided by twin 110 hp beam engines driving one flywheel, designed by Fairbairn. Power was taken off from the toothed rim of the flywheel. Later, the twin beam engines were replaced by a 5,000 HP marine engine.

Henry Bayley alone was working the mills by 1871 and the company was incorporated as Henry Bayley & Sons Ltd in 1875. By this time there were 46,320 mule spindles and 1,200 looms. By 1883 Bridge Street Mills and Bayley Street Mills combined were running 99,300 spindles and 1,700 looms. It is recorded that the mills were weaving cotton printer’s fabric, often called ‘printer’s cloth’ or calico. This fabric was specifically prepared to be printed with patterns.

American cotton was used and the yarn count for this printer’s fabric was 321/401.
This is then written as 32s/1 and 40s/1.
32s/1 equates to 1 strand of yarn of count size 32s (warp).
40s/1 equates to 1 strand of yarn of count size 40s (weft).
‘s’ stands for ‘singles’ and the larger the number the thinner the yarn. These yarn counts would have resulted in a fabric with a softer, tighter weave.

Bridge Street Mills and Bayley Street Mills ceased cotton production between 1903 and 1906 and subsequently they were demolished leaving no trace of their existence. Clarence Mill closed in 1960 and the building was repurposed for multiple occupancy and presently serves as a commercial and industrial site.

William Bayley
William Bayley was a complex figure in the history of Stalybridge. He was a major employer in the town and consequently he played a critical role in the Plug Riots of 1842, which was the first general strike in Britain. He had cut the pay of his workers by 5% during an economic depression and when he refused to withdraw this, they marched from mill to mill removing the plugs from boilers to stop the machinery. Despite his conflicts with workers, he became a local benefactor and in 1854 he donated funds for the construction of the Bayley Street Bridge over the river Tame. This bridge connected Stalybridge and his mills to new roads and wider transportation routes. He was elected the first Mayor of Stalybridge on 9 May 1857 and he held the office for three consecutive terms, serving from 1857 until 1860. His election followed the official incorporation of Stalybridge as a Municipal Borough on 5 Mar 1857.