Ron Freethy's England

IN a recent article I mentioned Hargreaves and his Spinning Jenny.

This has resulted in several letters asking for details of any museums where these machines can be seen.

There are only three of Hargreaves' Spinning Jennies left in the world.

One is in the London Science Museum, another at the Helmshore Textile Museums and the third is at the Calderdale Industrial Museum in Halifax.

I went to Halifax and spoke to the assistant keeper, who is a Burnley lad by the name of Jeff Wilkinson.

Jeff pointed out that in the days before cotton, wool was the staple industry and most of East Lancashire's cloth was sold in the Piece Hall at Halifax.

This is why the route through Colne, Nelson and the Harle Syke district of Burnley was called Halifax Road.

The woollen industry was slow to change and the spinsters provided the thread which the men would weave on the heavy looms. Maggie Simm, curator of Blackburn Museum, told me that the loom was the most valuable item in the cottage of the wool worker.

The machine was passed on from father to eldest son and this is the origin of the word heirloom.

Jeff Wilkinson showed me the collection of machines in the Halifax museum and he mentioned that there must have been 100 or more inventors all trying to improve on the Jenny.

There is only one remaining example of what became known as a "Spinning Jack" - which is rather larger than the Jenny.

It cannot have worked very well because it never caught on.

Jeff took me around the rest of the museum, pointing out that Halifax during the Industrial Revolution became sandwiched between the cotton industry which spread from Lancashire to Todmorden and the wool industry centred on Leeds. Halifax responded by doing a bit of wool and a bit of cotton production but concentrated mainly on producing textile machinery.

Halifax reacted by branching out and is still a centre for carpet manufacturing (Crossleys), sweets (Mackintosh's Quality Street) and the production of the "cats' eyes" which are set in the centre of roads and reflect headlights.

All these different industries are reflected in the museum. The workers dress up in costume and act out the history.

Machines rumble, pistons hiss, looms clatter, wheels clank and there is even a genuine smell of sweets, which can be bought in the shop.

The Calderdale Industrial Museum is open daily, except Monday.

Although it is not a large museum compared to, say, Manchester, Leeds or Helmshore, it is certainly a case of small is beautiful and well worth a visit.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.