As Manchester became established as the centre of the British cotton industry during the 18th– 19th centuries, many of the neighbouring towns also developed as cotton spinning and weaving communities. Stockport, which was already associated with other textile products, was one of these places.
Stockport’s industrial development
Stockport had developed into a small town on the south bank of the River Mersey by the 16th century, having been granted a market charter in the 13th century. Its location at the confluence of the relatively fast-flowing rivers Tame and Goyt with the Mersey facilitated the development of water-powered mills, including the transformation of existing corn mills. From the 17th century, Stockport became a centre for the felt-hatting industry and the silk-weaving industry. In the late 18th century, the hat trade expanded and cotton spinning mills were being built in increasing numbers, with Stockport also becoming established as an independent early centre for the textile printing and bleaching. Cotton power-loom weaving was introduced from the 1820s.
Growth of Stockport’s engineering industries
Following the development of iron foundries making textile and other machinery during the 19th century, more specialised and new types of engineering industries were introduced. Some had their roots in Stockport, for example Needhams Foundry, which manufactured mainly gulley grids and manhole covers for almost all parts of Britain and export to other countries. Others were relocated from elsewhere as exemplified by Mirrlees, Bickerton & Day Ltd, which originated in Glasgow and produced diesel engines, and Crossley Motors who moved from Manchester, and whose site is now a McVitie’s biscuit factory. During the 20th century, Stockport’s industrial base developed from a dependence on cotton and its allied industries to the manufacture of an increasingly diverse range of products.
Craven Brothers Ltd (1853-1967), machine tool maker and crane manufacturer
An example of a specialist engineering company relocating from elsewhere in Manchester is Craven Brothers Ltd, who formed in 1853 at Dawson Croft Mill, Salford, relocating to a 25 acre, purpose-built site in Reddish, near Stockport, in 1902. The company were famous for their overhead and self-propelling steam cranes, as well as for other machinery such as lathes and rotary drills which were exported worldwide. By the mid-20th century, Craven Brothers were producing heavy duty and oversized machine tools, having previously acquired the businesses of W.G. Armstrong & Whitworth & Co. Ltd, Joshua Buckton & Co. Ltd, and Thomas Shanks & Co. Ltd in 1928, all of whom transferred their businesses and specialist products to the Craven Brothers’ Vauxhall Works. By the late 1960s, the company was struggling and was bought in 1967, and subsequently closed in 1970. Many of the buildings were adapted and retained by the subsequent occupants, including the machine shops, pattern rooms, offices, and “Building 3” which was believed to have been a boiler house. All of these buildings had been resurfaced internally with concrete slabs meaning that no trace of their original use survived.
Our excavations at Vauxhall Industrial Estate, undertaken in advance of the redevelopment of the site by RECOM Solutions and Vauxhall Industrial Estate Ltd, revealed a number of features associated with the Craven Brothers’ Works. Two excavation areas were opened, targeted on features shown on historic mapping but no longer surviving: Area 1 in the north, targeting a small chimney and outbuildings adjacent to the machine shops; and Area 2 in the south targeting a chimney and part of the footprint of Building 3. In Area 1, the archaeological remains had been heavily truncated by the installation of chemical vats in the late 20th century after Craven Brothers closed; however, the foundations of the targeted outbuildings and the chimney were uncovered, as well as the remains of a railway track running alongside the machine shops, represented by in situ sleepers.
In Area 2, the foundations of a large circular chimney were excavated, with an adjacent flue leading from two Lancashire Boiler Beds located in the basement in Building 3. No trace of this basement had been visible in the building during inspections prior to its demolition. The basements had been filled in with waste from the on-site foundry, including ash, dross, slag and hundreds of crucible fragments. Analysis of this material suggests that it derived primarily from the casting of alloys, especially leaded gunmetal which was used to produce steam and hydraulic fittings. The boilers appeared to have gone out of use before the closure of the Craven Brothers Works, likely due to the shift from steam power to electricity within the works, after which time the boilers were removed, and the now defunct basements in Building 3 sealed.
> If you missed it, see part 6 of our series (Workers’ Housing at Middlewood Locks) here.