Building record 2608/40 - Charlotte Street Mill

Built in 1840. This silk weaving mill has floor to ceiling heights of up to 4 metres, to house Jacquard looms. It has a circular external stair tower, with dry chute privy. 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.