This is one of the sites around the town where there was a mill back into the mists of antiquity. Schotesbure Mill stood here in the 13th Century. By the middle of the 16lth Century the millers came from the Cannop family and the mill took their name. Nicholas Archard, whose family had owned the Burton Hill estate during this time, built a new fulling mill here around 1600. Fulling was the process whereby cloth was thickened and shrunk by pounding it in a solution of fullers earth. The outbreak of the 30 Years' War in 1620 had cut off export markets, causing a crisis in the woollen industry leading to the spectacular failure of Archard's business in 1622. However these premises were still known as Archard's Mill when the bird's-eye map was prepared in 1648. The first building across the bridge is the Mill House which dates from 1720.
The woollen industry in Malmesbury was cyclical and a century later it had closed down. At that time machinery was being introduced to the industry in the face of fierce opposition of the workers. Francis Hill, a Bradford on Avon clothier and lawyer bought this mill in 1790 to reintroduce the trade to the town. He moved his business from Bradford following riots there when he proposed to use new machines, a matter described to a Parliamentary commission in 1803. He built the two factory buildings in 1793 only 20 years after the first ever factory had been built by Richard Arkwright in Derbyshire. Factories organised labour in one specialised workplace giving the employer total control over the means and cost of production. Hill pioneered the use in Wiltshire of water power to drive fly shuttles and some 50 or 60 spring looms for weaving. Although vast quantities of cloth could be produced the quality was poor and much of the product was returned to the factory. It was fortunate that he was able to supply cloth to the government for uniforms during the Napoleonic Wars. Although Hill's business was innovative it was unsuccessful and closed before his death in 1828.
C.S. Taylor & Co. of Chippenham then rented the factory for a short period. They introduced spinning mules but went bankrupt in 1830. In 1831 when the town was surveyed by Benjamin Ansley for the Great Reform Bill he noted; a cloth factory was established about 20 years ago; but is now abandoned, and has been converted into a corn-mill. It (the town) contains very few Houses which appear to be occupied by persons of independent circumstances, and has altogether the air of a place on the decline, it must now be considered as entirely an agricultural Town. Maybe there is a lesson for the present here about dependence on one large employer. After a wrangle over Francis Hill's will, the mill as part of the estate was bought by Simon Uncles Salter (1800-1851) and his brother Isaac in 1833. Five years later a steam engine was in use.
This was unusual as a lot of coal was needed to power the engine. There was no canal which was the normal way of carrying heavy bulky goods and the road network to the town was none too good. Around 1840 a Highland regiment camped on the Worthies and proved such an attraction to the young women who worked in the factory that it had to shut until the soldiers moved on!
Thomas Bridget & Co. of Derby bought the mill in 1852. They were silk manufacturers but sold the factory 15 years later. Richard Jefferies described the operation in 1867; the silk arrives here in a raw state and is unpacked in the upper storeys of the building. Much of it is Chinese, and the packages often contain small slips of paper stamped with Chinese characters. The operation of cleaning employs a large number of children who tend the machinery used for that purpose. Most of these are very young and sing at their work. Overseers superintend them, and talking is not allowed, for the simple reason that attention is required to he exercised to manipulate the silk properly. Beneath is the winding department: lower still the looms where the ribbons are made. The machinery is of an order impossible to describe. There is a sameness in it. Apparently the greatest attention is paid to the comfort of those employed. The rooms are very large, well lighted, and though necessarily warm, not overheated. Nevertheless, from being so early put to work the children have an old look: but nothing of that careworn expression sometimes seen in factories. The machinery is driven by water power. Silk ribbons were much in demand during the Victorian era and at its peak the factory employed around 400. A tariff on silk products was removed in 1860 and it was difficult to compete with imports, particularly from France. Unfortunately the business failed in 1889, but before the end ol the century was reopened by Jupe's of Mere and by 1900 there were 150 workers. Japanese competition forced another closure that year but in the early 1920s production was restored by Avon Silk Mills Co. Ltd. Residents of the town could tell the time by the Silk Mill's bell which first sounded at five o'clock in the morning, then for breakfast at eight o'clock, lunch at one o'clock and finally at six in the evening. Silk production continued until 1941 when the Ministry of Supply closed it down. Most of the 200 workers were transferred to Ekco [Cowbridge House]. Dryden & Son bought the premises in 1950 to be used for dressing rabbit skins. Unfortunately myxomatosis, which was introduced to control the rabbit population, instead decimated it and brought that business to an end in 1954. The owners then opened an antiques showroom that carried on until 1980. Other businesses operated from the site, between 1974 and 1979 Manco produced battery chargers but made 30 workers redundant when they closed. In 1984 both buildings were converted to flats.
The area to the right of the right of the walkway leading to the footbridge was originally called 'Cucking Stool Mead', so called because it was where errant women were 'corrected' by ducking them in the river. Whilst Avon Mill produced cloth it was stretched here on racks to dry after fulling thus becoming 'Rack Meadow'. 'Black Meadow" was behind the factory where dyestuff was thrown from the windows! There was also a grand celebration here to celebrate the passing of the Great Reform Act. Tuesday 21 August 1832 was the date chosen but many hours of rain caused it to be postponed after 13 extensive tables had been erected and four hogsheads of beer delivered. Bird [King's Nursery] described it thus: The morning of Wednesday opened with every appearance of the weather clearing up. The bands of music pla\ed throughout the streets, whilst crowds of people in their holiday attire were pouring in from the adjacent parts, presenting a scene of the most animating description. The principal shops being closed, at 2 o 'clock a procession of professional gentlemen and tradesmen paraded the different streets of the town arm-in arm, preceeded by bands of music, and thirty handsome flags and banners. On the approach of the Procession to the entrance of the field the number of persons congregated was so dense as to render it almost impossible to stir. The gates, at which Officers were stationed, being opened, those who possessed tickets, amounting to nearly 2,000, were admitted to the tables. At a cross table at either extremity of the field was a baron of roast beef of enormous dimensions, each surmounted by a small dark-blue flag, bearing the inscription, "The Roast Beef of Old England. " Just previous to the sitting down to dinner, at the sound of the bugle, the Band struck up the tune "God save the King" which the assembled multitude joined in singing the following lines written for the occasion as a Grace - no Clergyman being present to engage in so important a duty.
TUNE,—" God save the King. "
Author of ev 'ry good,
Bless to our use this food What Thou dost give;
Grant we may always see,
That blessings flow from Thee,
Now, let us thankful be,
And while we live.
At the conclusion of the dinner, which was of the most inviting nature, and during the evening, the usual loyal and patriotic toasts were given and heartily responded to. The aggregate quantity of viands amounted to 2 oxen, 4 sheep, about 600 half-quartern loaves, and upwards of 80 plum-puddings, besides 8 hogs-heads of strong beer. On the following day the remains were distributed to nearly 100 poor families. Such an assemblage was never before witnessed in the town; it being computed that there were at one time not less than four thousand persons in the field; every commanding position outside the gates being thronged. The evening concluded with a grand display of Fireworks.
And I expect that the town will never see anything similar again!
Source: Charles Vernon
