Stockport's Industries

Well these is no hiding it Stockport is not a nice, rural town full of thatched buildings, pretty cottages with rose filled gardens. It is a northern industrial town that has seen good and bad times and as such as much in common with other industrial towns in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire.

Cotton

Or King Cotton, the industry that made NW England the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th C. The move from water power to steam allowed the cotton industry to move down from the Pennine villages and develop on the flatter lands of the Lancashire and Cheshire. The Lancs coalfield provided the coal for the steam engines, the Cheshire salt deposits provided the starting point for the Chemical industries centred near Widnes and Warrington providing bleaches and dyestuffs for the cotton industry. Raw materials were imported via Liverpool and later Manchester docks and transported by canal and rail across Lancashire and Cheshire. Finished goods went back out via the same ports to provide the world with Lancashire Cotton.

As a generalization the Lancashire Cotton industry was predominately spinning in the south and weaving in the north but Stockport's industry was more diverse than some of the other mill towns (for example in 1911 Oldham had 10% of the world's spindles!)

If you want to learn more about the Cotton Industry then visit Spinning the Web.

Hatting

Hatting was introduced into Stockport from the 1650s with manufacture carried out in domestic workshops by felt makers. Some hats were sold to the local market, but major hatting firms in London, in particular Christys, began to commission work from factories in the town.

Christys first moved into the town in 1826 when it took over a mill owned by the Worsley family. The Worsleys had been producing hats exclusively for Christys since the 1780s.

By 1840 felt hat making in Stockport was on the verge of collapse when William Barber, who learned silk hat making skills, invented new machinery to turn the Christy factory around.

Employment in Stockport’s hat factories increased dramatically from 473 in 1860 to 4,737 in 1890. Stockport was now at the centre of the country’s hatting industry which by 1884 was exporting more than six million hats a year.

Now the last of the hatting factories has closed, the only remnant of the industry is the Museum of Hatting.

Machine Tools and Engineering

Stockport was also the home of a number of precision machine tool manufacturers and engineering companies. If you do a search on the web you will still find many machine tool companies in Stockport. My father worked for both Crossleys in Reddish and Mirrlees in Hazel Grove, he travelled around the world working on big diesels in ships, power stations and other applications.

	Industry Well these is no hiding it Stockport is not a nice, rural town full of thatched buildings, pretty cottages with rose filled gardens. It is a northern industrial town that has seen good and bad times and as such as much in common with other industrial towns in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire. Cotton Or King Cotton, the industry that made NW England the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th C. The move from water power to steam allowed the cotton industry to move down from the Pennine villages and develop on the flatter lands of the Lancashire and Cheshire. The Lancs coalfield provided the coal for the steam engines, the Cheshire salt deposits provided the starting point for the Chemical industries centred near Widnes and Warrington providing bleaches and dyestuffs for the cotton industry. Raw materials were imported via Liverpool and later Manchester docks and transported by canal and rail across Lancashire and Cheshire. Finished goods went back out via the same ports to provide the world with Lancashire Cotton. As a generalization the Lancashire Cotton industry was predominately spinning in the south and weaving in the north but Stockport's industry was more diverse than some of the other mill towns (for example in 1911 Oldham had 10% of the world's spindles!) If you want to learn more about the Cotton Industry then visit Spinning the Web. Hatting Hatting was introduced into Stockport from the 1650s with manufacture carried out in domestic workshops by felt makers. Some hats were sold to the local market, but major hatting firms in London, in particular Christys, began to commission work from factories in the town. Christys first moved into the town in 1826 when it took over a mill owned by the Worsley family. The Worsleys had been producing hats exclusively for Christys since the 1780s. By 1840 felt hat making in Stockport was on the verge of collapse when William Barber, who learned silk hat making skills, invented new machinery to turn the Christy factory around. Employment in Stockport’s hat factories increased dramatically from 473 in 1860 to 4,737 in 1890. Stockport was now at the centre of the country’s hatting industry which by 1884 was exporting more than six million hats a year. Now the last of the hatting factories has closed, the only remnant of the industry is the Museum of Hatting. Machine Tools and Engineering Stockport was also the home of a number of precision machine tool manufacturers and engineering companies. If you do a search on the web you will still find many machine tool companies in Stockport. My father worked for both Crossleys in Reddish and Mirrlees in Hazel Grove, he travelled around the world working on big diesels in ships, power stations and other applications.