Earby & District Local History Society

[Stanley]

Sticking to steam. That's partly true Wendy but would be more accurate if it was expressed as avoiding electrification and not really understanding the energy balance in the mill. Tell Ian to look at my book Bancroft and chase the references to Bancroft on the site. Much of the early days information he seeks is there.
As for steam at Queen Street, I don't think the fate of the world depends on the small amount of coal burned there. We can't totally avoid emissions.

[Wendyf]

I didn't like to ask if he had read your books, I just assumed he would have done his research!

[Stanley]

All the information he wants is out there, much of it on the site.

[Whyperion]

Reading the recollections of actual events, maybe more true to say the shed lasted longer due to an attentive and interested engine tenter . And that management (locally and remote), of Bancroft, others in the textile empire and sheds and mills of other manufacturers had not wholly grasped the economics of factor inputs to their market (and of course aspects of the sale of finished goods with overseas lower labour cost competition would not have helped). A problem which I had not thought of was the nationalisation of both the Coal Mines, the Road Haulage Industry (in part), and the Generation and Supply of Electricity. The govt was then faced with what and where did they invest limited post war funds into, with both Electricity and Coal trying to demonstrate where the financial rate of return to them was the highest. One might ask , if electricity was so good, why were Trams (and Trolleybuses), effectively discouraged in the face of (imported oil) burning motorbuses in the corporations of the UK at about the same time. i noticed on a few (was it the made in the factory? ) TV programmes the weaving of yarn in a couple of UK locations are using very wide looms (I think made in Germany), computer controlled, for both woollens, cottons, silks and artificial fibres. Its all controlled by a handful of workers on the floor level, with designers coming up with finished ideas on computers too, perhaps the advantage they have is that the shed is supplying its own effective end user- with the cloth going for their own finishing to retail.
One of the strangest companies I didnt work for was a East End (London) Cloth 'brokers', they would buy in designed cloth mostly from the far east, their customers were mainly central African buyers for the bright designs places like Ghana are associated with. Profit was made making sure the buyers did not know the source/s of the supplies ! . The finished items from Africa would sometimes end up in shops back in the UK on import.