Lancashire’s position within the cotton business is effectively-recognized and its many mills and chimneys stay a long-lasting legacy to the county’s prominence throughout the industrial revolution.
India Mill in Darwen has been described because the most vital textile constructing in East Lancashire and its iconic chimney stack could be seen from far past the county’s borders.
The Grade II*-listed mill, which dominates the skyline at 303 ft tall, was constructed to resemble an Italian bell tower, and was the imaginative and prescient of business legend Eccles Shorrock. It was constructed between 1859 and 1871 and on the time was the tallest and most costly within the nation.
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It has been claimed that the inspiration stone the chimney rests on was one of the largest ever quarried in Britain and the stone is alleged to be bigger than the one Cleopatra’s Needle sits on in London. Despite the looks of blocked-up home windows there are not any stairs resulting in the highest.
Plenty of locals in Darwen have members of the family who used to work on the mill
(Image: Photo by James Maloney/LancsLive)
For true ‘Darreners’ many could have ancestors who labored within the mill. One of these is native Councillor Brian Taylor.
“My grandfather John Edwin Garlington worked at India Mill and went from there to fight in the Great War,” Brian informed LancsLive.
“He was lacking in motion on the Somme, till after six months the Red Cross stated that he was a POW in Germany. His job at India Mill was as a Stripper and Grinder… I child you not, it was a talented job handed down via households; actually my late brother was a Stripper and Grinder first at India Mill then on the sister firm of Moss Bridge.
John Edwin Garlington, the grandfather of Councillor Brian Taylor
(Image: Brian Taylor)
“After the Second World War it offered comparatively good work for Darweners and within the 1970s many migrant staff from Italy and the sub continent of India got here to work there.
“I was all the time informed that the iconic chimney’s design was based mostly on the campanile in St Marks Square in Venice; I can see the resemblance. As we all know King Cotton has lengthy gone from India Mill to get replaced with small corporations and of course the decision centre for TV Licensing. All the ceilings are brick arches to offer distinctive power together with pretty picket flooring. In the age of cotton the assorted flooring have been known as “flats” not flooring.
“India Mill continues to be a source of employment for not only the local population but for the good people of Chorley, Accrington and St Helen’s as well as further afield.”
Another native councillor, David Smith, described the chimney as iconic.
“My grandad worked there for 54 years from the age of 12 to 66,” David stated.
“It also gave him cotton dust on the chest which helped to kill him and hundreds of others in Darwen. The chimney is iconic and was the favourite chimney of Fred Dibnah.”
The mill hosted a go to from Mahatma Gandhi within the 1930s
(Image: Photo by James Maloney/LancsLive)
Going again to the 1930s India Mill hosted a go to from Mahatma Gandhi, who led the marketing campaign for Indian independence from British rule
During his go to to Lancashire in 1931 in consequence of a bid to boycott British textile items Gandhi was mobbed – not with anger however with admiration – by the identical neighborhood of weavers who had misplaced their jobs because of the Indian National Congress’ boycott of British items.
Mahatma Gandhi throughout his go to to Darwen
(Image: Getty Images)
“A crowd numbering three to four thousand people assembled at Darwen Station … when the train was heard to be entering the station, there was babel of eager voices, and every eye was focused on the station exit, but hopes were quickly dashed to the ground and the crowd was greatly disappointed when the first passenger to see the gathering shouted, ‘You all can go home. He got off at Spring Vale’.”
The Darwen News, September 26, 1931 (quoted in Mr. Gandhi Visits Lancashire by Irina Spector-Marks)
Gandhi’s go to to Darwen made headlines
(Image: Wikimedia Commons)
An interesting account printed by the Indian Express gives a complete recollection of Gandhi’s go to to Darwen:
“The eagerly awaited customer above is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi; Darwen and Springvale have been textile cities in Lancashire and the yr was 1931 when Gandhi had been visiting England for the second Round desk convention to debate India’s future, as the only real consultant of the Indian National Congress.
“In 1913, the yr earlier than World War I broke out, virtually 60 per cent of Lancashire cotton merchandise — three billion yards — have been exported to India. The similar worthwhile textile business had a precipitous fall after World War I and in 1931 had been in financial melancholy for greater than ten years and dealing with large losses in its exports to India, when the Indian National Congress in 1929 known as for a nation-vast boycott of British cotton items.
“Predominantly a textile hub, the earnings of many households in Lancashire depended solely on work within the mills. Thousands of unemployed mill staff felt they’d been targetedly impoverished because of the Swadeshi boycott of their items. In actuality, retrospect revealed that the Indian boycott was much less vital than different components for decline such because the Lancashire business’s lack of innovation and rising international competitors, however it acquired by far the most blame maybe since it was an exterior occasion of excessive visibility. However, given the clear battle and misery perceived as being a outcome of Gandhi’s initiative, his rousing reception in Lancashire is recalled as a very awe-inspiring occasion.
“Gandhi’s disciple Madeline Slade (Mira behn) remembers in her autobiography The Spirit’s Pilgrimage their go to to a Lancashire mill with largely ladies staff. The mill supervisor, with Gandhi’s permission, rung the bell so the employees may meet him. “Immediately the machinery stopped and the building was filled with the sound of running feet … by the time we ourselves got outside, there was a large crowd of workers waiting. Bapu said a few words, then two of the women workers suddenly hooked him by the arms, one on each side, and throwing up their un-engaged arms, shouted. ‘Three cheers for Mr Gandeye, hip, hip..’ Hurrah! shouted the crowd, and then again and once more, for the third and loudest time…”
“In the tip, Gandhi was to go away Lancashire with out giving them the “fair trade” concessions that they hoped to get out of the “friendly talks”. Harold Heyes relayed to the BBC that when some of the outdated weavers tried to inform him how unhealthy issues have been, he merely replied: “My dear, you have no idea what poverty is.” The spokesmen had been impressed by “the earnestness of the little man in the loin cloth,” however they failed to understand the opposite facets of his argument and persevered in believing that the boycott was a inconsiderate, misguided impulse which focused them unfairly.
The chimney could be seen from throughout Lancashire and past
(Image: Photo by James Maloney/LancsLive)
The mill stopped working in 1991 and by the flip of the century the chimney was in severe want of restore. In 2007 the highest 10 ft have been rebuilt, a cap put in place and the inside renovated. Bricks have been sourced from a agency close to Barrow-in-Furness of the identical color. Metal work together with ties and balustrades have been handled or changed. New nest packing containers have been fitted within the hope that the peregrine falcons, that had beforehand been occupants earlier than the constructing work, would return.
Now, of course, the mill is residence to TV Licensing’s name centre, operated by Capita, in addition to a number of smaller companies. India Mill will lengthy proceed to be one of the most recognisable landmarks in Darwen and holds a particular place within the coronary heart of many Darreners.
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