S Pickles and Son Ltd.. INDEX ENTRIES

[Stanley]

S Pickles and Son Ltd.

Index entries to May 2004.

Pickles. S and Sons
Article in Reed News c.1970. Potted history of S Pickles and Sons. Mentions Stephen the elder carrying cloth to the Cloth Hall at Colne. Says at peak they had 2,600 looms. If he was late for the train at Barnoldswick it waited for him. First knitting machines installed in 1949. They bought Bank Top Manufacturing Co in 1955 and Curzon Fabrics, Burnley in 1956. Kirdray bought shortly afterwards, 200 looms had to be taken out to make room for them.

CH 04/09/1931. Report that S Pickles and Sons have taken over the space at Long Ing Shed formerly occupied by Pearson and Wilson but empty since this firm ceased trading in 1926. Some looms have already been moved in from Calf Hall Shed which it is suggested Pickles will vacate. It is believed that the number of looms at Calf Hall will be greater than those at Calf Hall Shed. Mr S Pickles at Thornton in Craven refused to comment on these moves.

CH 01/05/1931. Article celebrating the 60th anniversary of Stephen Pickles starting manufacturing at Coates Mill [1870]. In 1931 his firm, S pickles and Sons had 416 looms in Calf Hall Shed and the3 Craven Manufacturing Company had 814 looms in Butts Mill. His mother and father wove on hand looms at home and carried yarn from Colne and Clitheroe and cloth to East Lancashire buyers. His father died in 1896 after working for some years for W Bracewell at Butts and Wellhouse Mills. He was born in Rainhall Road [Newtown end] in premises now used as a dairy. He started work in 1864 at 8 years old as a weaver for 2/6 a week. Along with his father and younger brother, the late Harry Pickles, he started up in Coates Mill and in 1889 they moved into Calf Hall Shed. In 1900 Stephen and his brother set up the Craven Manufacturing Company in Butts Mill. Harry Pickles died in 1929. Stephen said he had no faith in the eight loom system and automatics were too expensive to install in a depressed industry. In the business now are his two sons Fred and Stephen together with Ronald Pickles, son of Harry. Stephen used to live at Ray Gill, Brogden Lane but now resides at Barn Cottage, Thornton in Craven.

LTP. 48/SP/01. Page 22. Stephen Pickles talks about Barnsey Shed. He says that there were 60 or 70 investors, every shopkeeper in the town. He mentions Sam Yates, Harry Tinner (Hargreaves), and Edmondson the grocer. Jowett at the pot shop and Petty the painter. He says that when S Pickles and Sons bought the shed Norman Petty who transacted the deal had to visit 60 or 70 people to buy the shares. [In the Long Ing Shed Company]

Pickles Stephen (Jnr).
Audrey, Stephen Pickles’ secretary told me that he married one of Sir Amos Nelson’s daughters and lived at ‘Woodlands’ at Foulridge.

84/SP/01. Page 9. SP talks about his father’s account of living in Newtown. He said that it was a country lane then and there were green fields all the way down to Long Ing. In 1868 they were starving and only Stephen [1856] had a job, picking potatoes]. This was when Stephen [1824] decided to migrate on the promise of three acres and a cow in Fall River, Massachusetts. They stayed about two years, came back to Barlick in 1970/72 and founded S Pickles and Sons in 1881. Stephen Pickles talks about his father’s brother, Harry, who was born in 1858. He went with the family when they migrated to America. When they came back, they had four looms apiece in Clough Mill and Stephen was the Manchester man.

1851 census.
Jepp Hill, Barnoldswick. Pickles family.
Stephen, head, married, 27, power loom overlooker. Sarah, wife, 27. James 2 years.

1861 census.
Newtown, Barnoldswick. Pickles family.
Stephen, head, 37, mill manager. Sarah, wife, 37. Mary, 9. Stephen, 5. Henry, 1 year.

LTP. 84/SP/01. Page 5. SP talks about his father and Sir Amos Nelson starting manufacturing in the same year, 1881. They were friends and both teetotal. SP says that Sir Amos bought the Roundell Estate and Roundell, a Prohibitionist had closed the pubs down at both Martons and Elslack which suited Sir Amos as he was a prohibitionist as well. Sir Amos sold Barn Cottage to Stephen[1856] for £130 in 1930. SP knew Harriet [Hargreaves] who was the daughter of the Estate Agent at West Marton. Stephen said she had been engaged to a lad who worked in the bank at Barlick but he jilted her. She married Sir Amos later. [SG note. I think she was his secretary at Gledstone]

CH. 13/05/1932. Report of an engine breakdown at Long Ing Shed on Monday 9th of May. 350 operatives are out of work and a ‘Nelson firm’ are doing the repairs. Firms affected are E Aldersley, S Pickles and Sons, New road Manufacturing Company and Midgley. Albert Hartley are not affected as their shed is driven by a separate engine.

CH. 11/11/1932. Memoir of J Broughton (69) of Beech Street who has completed 50 years with S Pickles and Sons of Calf Hall Shed. He learned to weave at Clough Mill and started working for S Pickles Senior when he started at Old Coates Mill with 70 looms. He moved to Clough with the same firm and worked at that firm when a fire occurred on the premises of James Nutter. He alerted Slater Edmondson who then lived opposite Clough Mill. Pickles’ moved into Calf Hall Shed when it opened in 1889 and have been there ever since. He said that Old Coates Mill was out in the country and there was a plantation at the junction of Park Road and Rainhall Road.

CALF HALL SHED TENANTS AND RATES. BUDC Rate books. 27th September 1892. Windle and Bailey (struck out, see Wellhouse Mill 1894) Pickles, £188. Holden’s, £188. Nutter and Sons, £188.

In September 1900 S Pickles and Sons take over Butts Mill and run it in conjunction with their looms at Calf Hall Shed. 23/01/1903. Calf Hall Shed Company buy Butts Mill for £19,000.



Barnsey Shed.
From the late 1930s to 1950s the main tenants were S Pickles and Sons, Butts Manufacturing Company and the Craven Manufacturing Company.

Pickles, Stephen. JP
Died September 29th 1934. [b. 1856]

From ‘A Way of Life Gone By’. Page 60. The Pickles family started weaving with a few looms in Old Coats Mill about 1850. In 1870 after two years of the Cotton Famine they migrated to America on the promise of three acres and a cow. Both boys, Stephen 14 and Harry 12 could weave having started work at 8 years old. The land was useless so they worked in the mills six days a week, 6am to 6pm. In 1872 they came back to Barlick and worked as weavers in Clough. In 1881 they started on their own account, Stephen was the Manchester Man and on Tuesday, when he was on the ‘change, Harry ran his six looms and Stephen’s as well. They had looms in Butts and Barnsey and eventually finished up in Long Ing.

Long Ing Shed
LTP. 78/AC/06. Page 11. Ernie Roberts says that in 1934 the tenants at Long Ing were S Pickles and Sons, Midgley’s, New Road Manufacturing Company and Aldersley’s in the Bottom Shop.

SCG/03 May 2004