Monument record 2608/12 - Chestergate Mill

Recently demolished early-mid 18th century silk mill. 3 storeys high and heated by open fires. The upper storey was a shade, or long room for hand throwing silk. 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