Tone Mills Fulling & Dyehouse, Jan 2011
This is a part two to my previous report on Tonedale Mills, which can be found here: http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=57414
Due to the nature of the site, it has been kept off the radar for quite a while, but recent events, including a write up in the local paper, concerning the decaying state of the site, means that it is now ‘out in the open’, so to speak.
This part of the Fox’s empire was used for Fulling, Tentering and Dying the finished cloth.
A massive thanks to Urbanity for the heads up, and finding the site initially, and whilst i’m not the greatest report writer, i’ve tried to add a few different shots of this unique and special place.
Tone Works was the dyeing and finishing works established by Fox Brothers and Co of' Tonedale Mills, Wellington, at the confluence of the River Tone and the Back Stream. The site is shown on the Tithe map of 1839, and the works was enlarged and altered over the next 80 years. In 1912 the site was described as having "perhaps the largest Indigo Dye House in England". The site continued in production until March 2000.
Tone Works is a near-complete example of a C19 cloth dyeing and finishing works, which developed between c.1830 and c.1920. It retains all of the component structures associated with the dyeing and finishing of worsted and woollen cloths, together with the machinery and fittings required for those processes. Tone Works in its present form is an exceptional survival in a national context, not only for the completeness of the building complex, but also for the survival of its machinery, water management system and power generation plant.
If you look closely, you can see part of the huge driving wheel, which was belt driven from a motor, and fed the entire wheel and belt system throughout the whole site! This wheel is about 5M in diameter!!
A specials request, dated ‘6th November 1967’!!
Hand written Scouring instructions....
Apologies for the huge amount of pics, but from 5 Visits, i’ve taken nearly 1500, so they’ve been thinned down a bit!!
C.
This is a part two to my previous report on Tonedale Mills, which can be found here: http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=57414
Due to the nature of the site, it has been kept off the radar for quite a while, but recent events, including a write up in the local paper, concerning the decaying state of the site, means that it is now ‘out in the open’, so to speak.
This part of the Fox’s empire was used for Fulling, Tentering and Dying the finished cloth.
A massive thanks to Urbanity for the heads up, and finding the site initially, and whilst i’m not the greatest report writer, i’ve tried to add a few different shots of this unique and special place.
Tone Works was the dyeing and finishing works established by Fox Brothers and Co of' Tonedale Mills, Wellington, at the confluence of the River Tone and the Back Stream. The site is shown on the Tithe map of 1839, and the works was enlarged and altered over the next 80 years. In 1912 the site was described as having "perhaps the largest Indigo Dye House in England". The site continued in production until March 2000.
Tone Works is a near-complete example of a C19 cloth dyeing and finishing works, which developed between c.1830 and c.1920. It retains all of the component structures associated with the dyeing and finishing of worsted and woollen cloths, together with the machinery and fittings required for those processes. Tone Works in its present form is an exceptional survival in a national context, not only for the completeness of the building complex, but also for the survival of its machinery, water management system and power generation plant.
If you look closely, you can see part of the huge driving wheel, which was belt driven from a motor, and fed the entire wheel and belt system throughout the whole site! This wheel is about 5M in diameter!!
A specials request, dated ‘6th November 1967’!!
Hand written Scouring instructions....
Apologies for the huge amount of pics, but from 5 Visits, i’ve taken nearly 1500, so they’ve been thinned down a bit!!
C.
