Fulling to Fustianopolis

Cross Lanes Chapel
Cross Lanes Chapel, built 1840 by the Methodists at the top of the Buttress, the old route to Heptonstall. To the left is the newer road leading to Heptonstall.

Midgehole
Midgehole. There were several mills in this area and by 1869 they were all used for dyeing and finishing. The largest of these was Worrals, a Lancashire firm who had bought Midgehole dyeworks in 1861.

Buildings at Wood End
Buildings at Wood End with a quarry called Owler Bank to the left and the Birchcliffe hillside to the right.

Foster Mill
Foster Mill, one of the largest cotton spinning mills in the valley, was both steam and water powered. The mill burnt down in 1888, but was rebuilt and sold to Redman Bros. The mill was demolished to make way for housing.

Hangingroyd Mill
Hangingroyd Mill. This mill was used for dyeing and finishing by Thomas Barker and a weaving shed was added in 1871. Thomas Barker also built Ashley House, now known as Angeldale.

Nutclough Mill
Nutclough Mill, hidden in the trees, was still a small water powered cotton spinning mill in 1869. The following year a group of fustian workers set up a co-operative workshop in Crown Street, but they moved to Nutclough in 1873. The Hebden Bridge Fustian Manufacturing Society was to become the leading co-operative producer in the country and a flagship of the movement.

Bridge Mill
Bridge Mill. This site dates back to at least the 14th century when this was the manorial corn mill for Wadsworth. By 1869 the mill had probably recently been converted from corn to cotton manufacture, and a steam engine and chimney added.

Unidentified building
Can anyone help us to identify this prominent building? There were two cotton mills in this area in 1869, but there are also references to St George's Hall.

Doctor's Hill
The lower section of Commercial Street, known as Doctor’s Hill, because there were several doctors living here. The Mechanics' Institute was founded in Commercial Street in 1854, part of a movement to provide an education for working men.

Crown St
Crown Street, with more houses on New Road built for the Crossley Mill workers, and behind them Cheethams building, soon to become a clothing factory. Now Crown Street fisheries.

Hope Baptist Chapel
Hope Baptist Chapel built with the help of the Crossley Family in 1858 when Ebenezer Chapel became to small.

Old Gate
This road is a continuation of Old Gate, later to become Market Street. In 1869 only a few houses and Ebenezer Chapel had been built. Behind, a track leads up to Hanging Royd House.

Crossley Mill
Crossley Mill, built c1819, steam powered, used for spinning and weaving. The site is now New Road and Tan Pits car parks. The houses on either side of the mill, still existing, initially housed handloom weavers.

Holme House
Holme House, home of the Appleyards, who owned various property in Hebden Bridge including the Shoulder of Mutton. The field to the right became Calder Holmes Park.

Hebden Wharf
Hebden Wharf was used as a timber yard. Croft House, which was the home of the timber merchant, and Croft Terrace seen behind what is now Hebden Marina.

Bridge below Black Pit Lock
The bridge below Black Pit Lock on the Rochdale Canal, which had been completed as far as Hebden Bridge by 1798. A horse drawn barge is shown approaching the lock.

Manchester and Leeds railway
Steam can be seen from a train on the Manchester & Leeds Railway. The line opened to Hebden Bridge in 1840. It later became the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway.

Pallis House
Pallis House on what is now Palace House Road. The Palisser looked after the medieval deer park, the name comes from the palisade or fence surrounding the park. The house was demolished when Fairfield was built.

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Following on from 'Power in the Landscape', the Alternative Technology Centre is working on a new project exploring the history of the textile industry in and around Hebden Bridge. It is a story that takes in a recent Bronze Age textile find, monastic multi-nationals, the use of natural dye stuff and the growth of the Co-operative Movement

The project spans the history of the area, from the fulling of woollen cloth, through the cotton industry of the 19th century, to Hebden Bridge becoming the largest producer of ready- made working class clothing made from fustian, the name given to various types of strong cotton cloth.

Manchester, as the centre of the cotton trade, was known as 'Cottonopolis', Bradford as 'Worstedopolis', and Edwardian Hebden Bridge as 'Fustianopolis', producing thousands of pairs of fustian trousers and jackets in the mills and sewing shops.

Water power was used for fulling woollen cloth long before the coming of cotton mills in the early 1800s.

This is a community based project involving local people with the support of the Hebden Bridge Local History Society and Calderdale Museum Service.