About Us

Woodend Mills....a brief history

In 1848, Robert Hyde Buckley – the youngest son of Nathaniel, built Woodend mill along side the canal and river Tame, close to his father’s mills. Mossley was then known as the town of three counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire and was thriving in cotton production during the latter part of the 19th century right up to the cotton famine in the 1930’s. Even with the outbreak of civil war in the United States in 1861, and constant threats to raw cotton supplies due to attempted Northern blockades from Southern ports, investments in new cotton mills continued and the addition of a larger mill 2 was built between 1862 to 64 by Robert Shaw Buckley and could hold up to 40,000 mule spindles.

    A 1901 advertisment for Woodend Mills

 By 1884, Mossley was the tenth most important cotton spinning town in the country and nearly half of this production was controled by three major companies, John Mayall, George Mayall & Co, and Robert Hyde Buckley & Sons Ltd. In the 1890’s the cotton industry was having difficulties and this had devastating affects on Mossley, which saw some of the larger firms close in 1896. Woodend mill continued to suffer even more due to the opening of new and more modern mills at Carrhill and Milton mill in 1899.

Despite the first world war, trade was reasonably healthy although cotton mills were being built in India and by 1914 this was taking almost 40% of Lancashire’s cotton exports. Just after the war there was a surge in demand and prices rocketed and created a boom but was short lived until the Great depression came in 1930.

At the end of world war 2, there was only Three firms that remained in production in Mossley, and despite the post-war boom, trade rapidly decreased in the early 1950's and continued to spiral until it's closure in 1959. Robert Hyde Buckley & sons carried on working at Copley Mill, Stalybridge until 1974. The neighbouring Carrhill Mill was the last remaining mill in Mossley to continue trading until the late 1990's as a wool spinning Mill.

  One of the studios today

In 2001, Sue Platt was one of the first Artists to rent studio space in

Mill 1, until this time only the lower levels were being used for light industry and a Pet centre. A new roof was erected and windows replaced on the south side facing the Canal. It was'nt long before word got around that there was studio space to rent at a reasonable price, fitting for it's basic and rustic charms. Some local bands took up a lot of these spaces in Mill 1, and the noise became increasingly disturbing for some of the artists. Slowly the demand increased for the upper levels of the younger Mill 2 to be restored, and now has more than 20 new tennants renting studios. Woodend mill still has all the charactoristics of a 19th centruy cotton mill and is one of only a few that remain in Mossley and Saddleworth to house these sorts of trades, unlike most that have been demolished or even worse, being turned into 'luxury appartments'.  Long may it survive as a place of creativity and culture.