Building record 2608/65 - Pitt Street Mill

Built in 1840, this mill was gas lit until the early 20th century. The engine site is marked by the circumscribed arc of the engine flywheel against the wall. 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.