Cops and Bobbins: Exploring the Textile Industry in Oldham and Saddleworth

Millscapes is a major exhibition that takes a fresh look at the industrial architecture of the North West, from the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution to today’s changing skylines. The exhibition features paintings and mill models from public and private collections around the region and is jointly curated by Touchstones Rochdale and Gallery Oldham, and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Millscapes is on show at Gallery Oldham 17 November 2007 – 2 February 2008

The urban landscape of the North West owes much of its distinctive character to the textile industry. During Lancashire’s great mill building era, which began in the 1790s, several thousand mill buildings crowded the region’s skyline. These mills, and the canal systems, aqueducts, warehouses and streets of terraced housing built with them, completely transformed the landscape.

Millscapes begins with scenes of the water-powered mills of the 19th Century. The paintings on show from this period focus on both rural and urban mill landscapes, rather than the people who worked in the mills. Many of these early paintings are by unknown artists, such as ‘Lowerhouse Printworks, Burnley’ and ‘Frenches Mill, Saddleworth.’

The introduction of electric power meant that mills built in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries no longer had to be sited close to rivers or reservoirs. Many mills were built on the edge of existing urban developments with several massive mills close together, as shown in James Purdy’s view of ‘Millbottom,’ Oldham (1935). The thick urban smog, a result of the rapid industrial developments of the time, is a feature of many paintings of the era such as French Impressionist Pierre Adolphe Valette’s ‘Bailey Bridge, Manchester’ (1912).

Paintings from the 1930s and 40s include ‘Our Town’ and ‘Street Scene’ by LS Lowry. These works feature the rigid lines and smoking chimneys that dominate Lowry’s work, and provide a stark contrast to Harry Rutherford’s cheerful ‘Mill Girls, Ashton’ (1948).

Britain’s textile industry fell into decline after World War II. Many artists continued to show grimy landscapes of textile towns, such as Theodore Major in his ‘Wigan Street’ (1960s) and ‘Mills at Dawn’ (1970s).

In contrast, Harold Hemingway’s ‘Rochdale, Views Over the Town Centre in 1856 and 1956’ are uncharacteristically optimistic paintings, and Oldham artist Helen Bradley painted nostalgic images which look back to the boom of the early 20th Century.

By the 1980s, over half of the mills and cloth-finishing works in Greater Manchester had been demolished or were derelict. Liam Spencer has been painting scenes of Manchester since the 1980s, capturing its regeneration and ‘Rooftops’ (1995/6) and ‘The End of the Mancunian Way’ (c.1993) are on show in the Millscapes exhibition.

The ongoing inspiration of the changing urban landscapes of the North West is shown in Peter Stanaway’s ‘Now the Mill Has Gone’ (2005), Walter Kershaw’s ‘Mutual Mills Reflections’ (2007), Alan Rankle’s ‘Saddleworth Study: Uppermill’ (2006) and David Gledhill’s ‘Old Mill Street’ (2007).

Millscapes is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Your Heritage’ scheme to examine the heritage of the textile industry in the North West.

The Millscapes project includes oral history and reminiscence projects linked to new social history exhibitions on show alongside the Millscapes exhibition. Cops and Bobbins is on show at Gallery Oldham 17 November 2007 – 2 February 2008. The Fight to End Slavery: A Local Story was at Touchstones Rochdale earlier this year while Millscapes was on show there.

Millscapes and the two accompanying exhibitions examine the role of the transatlantic slave trade on the North West’s textile industry. They are linked to Revealing Histories, a project between eight museums and galleries in Greater Manchester commemorating the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Act. For further information visit www.revealinghistories.org.uk

Millscapes is on show at Gallery Oldham 17 November 2007 – 2 February 2008.

Gallery Oldham is situated in the Cultural Quarter, Greaves Street, Oldham, OL1 1AL. The Gallery is open Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm and admission is free. For further information call 0161 770 4653 or visit www.galleryoldham.org.uk

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For further information and images contact Catherine Bradley on 0161 770 4741 catherine.bradley@oldham.gov.uk