Kent Mill, Chadderton

Kent

Location within Greater Manchester
Cotton
Spinning (ring mill)
Location	Chadderton
Serving canal	Rochdale Canal
Further ownership	Lancashire Cotton Corporation (1930s) Courtaulds (1964)
Coordinates	53°33′00″N 2°08′10″W / 53.550°N 2.136°W / 53.550; -2.136
Construction
Built	1908
Demolished	1994
Design team
Architect	G Stott
Power
Engine maker	George Saxon & Co
Engine type	cross compound
Valve Gear	Corliss valves
rpm	64rpm
Flywheel diameter	26ft
Transmission type	rope
No. of ropes	28
Boiler configuration
Pressure	160psi
References

Kent Mill, Chadderton was a cotton spinning mill in Chadderton, Oldham, Greater Manchester. It was built in 1908 It was taken over by the Lancashire Cotton Corporation in the 1930s and passed to Courtaulds in 1964. Production finished in 1991 and it was demolished in 1994.

Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, 5.3 miles (8.5 km) south-southeast of Rochdale, and 6.9 miles (11.1 km) northeast of the city of Manchester. Oldham is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham; Chadderton and Hollinwood are such settlements. Chadderton and Hollinwood are served by the Rochdale Canal and the Hollinwood Branch Canal. A rail service was provided by the Oldham Loop Line built by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway.

Oldham rose to prominence during the 19th century as an international centre of textile manufacture. It was a boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, and amongst the first ever industrialised towns, rapidly becoming "one of the most important centres of cotton and textile industries in England", spinning Oldham counts, the coarser counts of cotton. Oldham's soils were too thin and poor to sustain crop growing, and so for decades prior to industrialisation the area was used for grazing sheep, which provided the raw material for a local woollen weaving trade. It was not until the last quarter of the 18th century that Oldham changed from being a cottage industry township producing woollen garments via domestic manual labour, to a sprawling industrial metropolis of textile factories. The first mill, Lees Hall, was built by William Clegg in about 1778. Within a year, 11 other mills had been constructed, but by 1818 there were only 19 of these privately owned mills.