Building record 2608/15 - Royal Silk Warehouse

Built in 1903 by Robinson Brown this is the only warehouse in East Cheshire built specifically for the sale of manufactured silk goods. It is 4 storeys high and built of Accrington brick on sandstone foundation walls.It has an Art nouveau entrance hall. 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.