Macclesfield - the historic centre of the Silk Industry in Britain

As three of our party of five live in Bollington, near Macclesfield in Cheshire I thought it right to point out that Macclesfield is the historic centre of the silk industry in the UK. Macclesfield is a former industrial town with a population of 55,000 and is located 15 miles south east of Manchester on the edge of the Peak District. The town can rightly claim to be the home of silk in Britain and even today the town’s professional football team retains the nickname “The Silkmen” and the new through-pass road was named The Silk Road in 1998 when it was opened.

Paradise Mill was Macclesfield's last working silk mill until its closure in 1981, when cheaper imported silks and high quality new synthetic materials made the production of silk in England uneconomic. The mill which is now part of the Macclesfield Silk Museum still houses over 20 original fully working Jacquard looms - each capable of producing the kind of intricate and delicate woven pattern-work that made the loom, and Macclesfield, famous throughout Britain for the production of fine silks.

Jacquard, a Frenchman, had invented his loom in 1804, and it was the first truly automated system for mass produced continuous weaving of complex and intricate multi-coloured patterns by using punched cards. Jacquard looms often took many days to thread and set up, but they could produce for 24 hours a day, and they revolutionised much of the weaving process in terms of the sheer quantity and intricacy of the material produced. These looms have been restored to their original working condition, and can be seen in operation during the guided tours offered at the Paradise Mill.

In the late 18th century most of the silk-covered buttons in Britain and over much of the civilised world would have been made in Macclesfield, as would most of the silk ties worn in Britain until relatively recent times.

The Paradise Mill opened in 1862, (though silk weaving had been in Macclesfield since the 1750s) and originally housed both hand and powered looms. As early as 1743, Charles Roe had built his first water-powered mill in Macclesfield, and within a decade, the town had become the nation's main centre for silk production. From 1912 the mill was owned by Messrs Cartwright & Sheldon, and concentrated solely on hand-weaving, despite the advance of power looms all around them. Several ex-employees still show their traditional experience and expertise in demonstrations of the silk-weaving process.

Rather appropriately the final death blow to Macclesfield silk came from China, from where cheap imported silks began to appear in the 1960s. Nowadays, the mill produces only a limited number of silk ties and ribbons.