{"id":562,"date":"2023-10-16T18:15:49","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T18:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=562"},"modified":"2023-10-16T18:15:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T18:15:53","slug":"a-visit-to-the-mills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/?p=562","title":{"rendered":"A visit to the mills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hey Blog! This post seems to have unexpectedly linked with last week\u2019s \u2013 it\u2019s also about cotton, but this time I\u2019m introducing the mills in which it was spun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cotton is a plant. The seeds exude a white, fluffy substance which is the cotton. This can be picked, baled, and shipped to the mill. In the mill, it goes through a long line of conveyor belts and noisy machines, and comes out the other end as nice clean cotton thread. After another journey and an even noisier loom, you get a roll of cloth, and that fabric can be made into anything. Most people don\u2019t think much more than that \u2013 it\u2019s all done automatically in a factory nowadays, right? Well, yes; but in the 1700s when Sir Arkwright was doing his business, no. He and some other entrepreneurs built several mills along the Derwent Valley, which now form the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site \u2013 as seen in the last week\u2019s post, this is one of the supporters of the poetry session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of those mills is known as Masson Mills, and is Arkwright\u2019s show mill, different to the others \u2013 if you have seen them \u2013 as Masson is the only one to be built entirely of red brick (brick was more expensive than stone, so it was used to show off). It used to run on water power, from the river Derwent at the back door, but later it was made to run on steam power \u2013 another status symbol! The process was to transform bales of rough lumpy cotton into fine, thin threads. First, you put the cotton into a large turning machine nicknamed \u201cthe devil\u201d. It had a lot of large iron teeth, and losing limbs in it was not unheard of. This split the cotton into small bits. The next stage was the shredder, which combed it finer, and then the carder. This would make the cotton into thin, wispy strands, which were rolled up around a drum and put into the next part of the process. The frame of drums and spinning rollers both stretched and spun the strands into thread, which was sent to the weavers. All that under one roof. The noise must have been deafening \u2013 no soft whirring, but clank-clank-clank of chains and cogs. For 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, every week, from age 9. Not exactly the most pleasant work, but it made a lot of money for the factory owners, whereas the pay was only a few shillings a week for the workers. After the thread had been made, it was taken to a weaving shed. Here, with a lot of even noisier clanking, and a flying shuttle, it makes cloth. Which you could do from age 6\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Masson Mills has both weaving and spinning in it, but originally it only had the spinning stage. The machines are very large \u2013 one is 70ft. long! The building is powered by hydroelectricity from the river, so after all these years waterpower is coming back (maybe in a different design, but still renewable!). Since it shut last century, it has been turned into a visitor centre, and makes string for the shop upstairs. We bought a ball of this \u2013 it\u2019s very nice. Many of the machines can still be run, even if they don\u2019t do things commercially any more. For the real experience you need to see the mill (I don\u2019t want to put the tour guides out of a job), and it\u2019s well worth a visit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/home-ed-in-a-shed.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/IMG_20231011_115951.jpg?ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-563\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.75;width:317px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In the mill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hey Blog! This post seems to have unexpectedly linked with last week\u2019s \u2013 it\u2019s also about cotton, but this time I\u2019m introducing the mills in which it was spun! Cotton is a plant. The seeds exude a white, fluffy substance which is the cotton. This can be picked, baled, and shipped to the mill. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-ed-in-a-shed-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A visit to the mills - Home Ed in a Shed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A visit to the mills - Home Ed in a Shed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hey Blog! This post seems to have unexpectedly linked with last week\u2019s \u2013 it\u2019s also about cotton, but this time I\u2019m introducing the mills in which it was spun! Cotton is a plant. The seeds exude a white, fluffy substance which is the cotton. This can be picked, baled, and shipped to the mill. 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