Building record 2608/6 - Thorp Street Gas Mill

Built in 1827 (but not occupied until 1832, by Samuel Thorp) for silk throwing. One of 7 pedimented (with triangular gables) mills built in Macclesfield between 1811 and 1831. The mill was acquired by Berisfords of Congleton by the mid 20th century. Originally 5 storeys high, the mill lost 2 storeys in a fire in 1977. Macclesfield was one of two silk production centres in Cheshire. Silk buttons had been made here since Elizabethan times. Silk throwing (Twisting silk threads together) began as a domestic industry and became a mechanised process with the use of water powered machinery in the mid 18th century. The industrial revolution introduced power weaving in the late 19th century and many large mills were built at this time.