Catalogue description ALBERT MILLS, SOWERBY BRIDGE

Albert Mills, Sowerby Bridge

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Deposited : A Sutcliffe

Accessioned : 1978 Oct 26

In about 1889 Henry James Homfray arrived in Yorkshire after receiving training in carpet manufacture at the Kidderminster premises of John Brinton and Company. He set up a business of chenille Axminster rug manufacture at Albert Mills, Sowerby Bridge. The Company was incorporated on 23 May 1891 as Homfray and Company Ltd. In 1905 a lease of Asquith Bottom Shed, Sowerby Bridge, was negotiated and wide chenille looms were installed. Seamless bordered squares were made in a number of quantities but the bulk of the production remained in rugs until after the First World War when considerable expansion took place.

During the 1920s, three factories were purchased - Rose Hill Mill, Sowerby Bridge (chenille looms); Delph Mill, Luddendenfoot (pile yarn spinning); and Luddenden Foot Mills, occupied by a subsidiary company British Furtex (upholstery fabrics). Further factories bought included Lower Willow Hall Mill, Sowerby Bridge (wool storage, blending and scouring); Brier Mill, Birstall (spool Axminster carpet manufacture by Birstall Carpet Company Ltd, a subsidiary company incorporated on 1 Jan 1937); Prospect Mill, Sowerby Bridge (weaving and spinning); Perseverance Mill, Sowerby Bridge (storage); Riding Hall Mills, Halifax, formerly known as Clark Bridge Mills (warehouse and group headquarters); Park Mill, Birstall (dyeing, spinning and tufting).

The company was the first in the UK to make floor coverings by the tufting process in 1952 on a narrow machine at Albert Mill. In 1966 for administrative and practical reasons Homfray and Company Ltd sold the whole of its carpet and rug manufacturing business to Riding Hall Carpets Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary company