Building record 2608/32/1 - Townley Street Mill

This Mill was erected before 1769, to house water powered Italian silk throwing machinery.It was originally let by Glover & Co. It was later acquired by Josiah Smale & Son, around 1864, as part of the Bollin Mills complex. Demolished in 1946 to make room for a north light weaving shed (North light sheds had multiple pitched roofs; the north side of each was a window which gave the best working light.) 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.