Tonedale Textile Mill / Foxs Mill
Sitting here with my warm dry feet, it seems an age ago that we were traipsing around Taunton searching out it’s hidden (or not so) derelict sites.....Thanks to Incognito for driving, and for the prep work too! This was a nice lazy explore for me!
This mill has been out of use since the mid to late 90’s from what I can gather. There has been a mill of some sort on the site since the early 1790’s, concentrating mainly on the production of woollen and worsted fabrics.
The mill is known quite historically as the location where our traditional “Khaki” coloured army uniforms where developed. In the 1900’s, the “Khaki” colours where given the royal seal of approval by the then Prince of Wales, which saw the end of the classic British “Redcoat” soldiers. (did we have any common sense back then?)
A small extract.....
At its peak, Tonedale Mill employed some 4,500 people and exported fabrics around the world. It also provided livelihoods for other related trades on the site, including bookbinders, basket weavers, stonemasons and metalworkers.
From the 1950s, manufacturing at Britain’s mills went into decline.
The deafening noise of the powerlooms housed in Tonedale’s weaving sheds was heard no more once production on the site ceased by the end of the 1990s, although the firm of Fox Brothers and Company Ltd still exists and operates in a nearby location to this day.
After the trekking around in and out of windows and over and under walls (actually, perhaps not under walls), my jeans do actually look quite a good “khaki” colour themself!
Wellington!
Uruguay!
The cleanest and driest company of the day!
The Labyrinth or Mirror Maze!
Umm.....Can’t see it going to crimewatch.....
You can kind of imagine sitting here and suddenly feeling a hand come flying up!
Sorry Collingwood – I have forgotten the tips you gave me for photographing water! Tried my best!