Stroud Textile Industry

Many old mills can be found in the Nailsworth – Stroud – Chalford valleys (known as The Five Valleys), and I’ve documented a number of the old mills in the area.

Click the ‘Cloth Mills’ link on the main menu for info on the individual mills.

These old mills range from little more than a tall chimney to complete buildings, some of which have been or are in the process of being converted into flats.

Others are used as business units or are sitting unused. Ebley Mill for example is occupied by the local council.

The ones converted are Longfords Mill, Dunkirk Mill, Rooksmoor Mills and possibly Kimmins Mill, although that’s currently unused and has been for years.

The latest mill on the proposed conversion list is Ham Mill at Thrupp, about a mile east of Stroud. A link about that is at the end of the article.

The woollen trade was once the principle industry in the area, with Gloucestershire being famous for it’s superfine broadcloth. This was normally sold as ‘ white’ or undyed, most of which was intended for the overseas market, but some was sent to Coventry to be finished.

Chalford Hill is known locally as Rack Hill as cloth used to be hung out on racks on the hillside to dry.

Many of the mills turned their hands to silk throwing as the woollen trade declined. Later, the Mills would be used for car manufacture, carpet production, walking stick production, pin making and in later days electronics.

The mills were originally water powered so they’re located beside a small river or stream which around these parts are the river frome or the Nailsworth stream. The waterwheel in the photo below is attached to the side of Ruskin Mill, Just out of Nailsworth on the road to Horsley.

Not seen now, except in one or two examples would have been a large mill pond upstream of the mill to provide sufficient power to turn the mill waterwheels and thus the mill machinery.

Longfords Mill near Avening has a very big lake to the side of it called Gatcombe Water. There’s also some smaller ponds on the Nailsworth side of Dunkirk Mill that can be seen from the cycle track.

Another mill pond is at Ruskin Mill. This pond now powers a hydro generator although it looks like it’s not currently operational.

The waterwheels would be connected to things called line shafts that were long steel shafts running the length or width of the building on each floor. Fitted along the length of the shafts were large wheels that were used to drive the machinery below them via a wide belt.

As the mills were dependent on the river, mills upstream could shut off the water supply to the ones further down the valley if they needed to top up their mill ponds. This could cause loss of production further down the valley if their ponds were running low.

Most of the old mill ponds are now filled in or much reduced in size to accommodate new building development.

Later steam engines were added, some of which could work in conjunction with the water wheel. The photo below shows one such engine installed at Longfords Mill along the Avening road.

There was (maybe still is) a large collection of engines in Longfords Mill although there’s no public access to view them. Photos are in the link.

Longfords is particularly interesting as it has a hydro electric generator powered by Gatcombe Water.

The two big diesel generators at Longfords might have been installed in response to the three day weeks imposed by the government in the early 70s due to the the coal miners and railway workers strikes. I’m speculating though.

During the working life of the mills, many of them will have had a change of use as they took on new owners. Where possible, I have documented the different uses, but information on the mills is patchy.

There are a couple of publications that are of interest re the old cloth industry in this area. One is a DVD called Rivers of Cloth available from the Museum in the Park that shows old video footage of the cloth manufacture taken at Longfords Mill along with stories from people that worked there.

Obviously this is more recent material but it’s well worth watching and another is a small book normally available from the bookshop up the Stroud high street opposite Costa that has the history of Ebley Mill, now home to Stroud District Council that moved into it with a lot controversy many years ago that the history books have forgotten about!

Please support this site by purchasing books with the buy now links.

The Gloucestershire Woollen Mills by Jennifer Tann

Gloucestershire Woollen Industry and its Mills

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