THE TUCKING MILL
Devon Wool
A
t Chopes Bridge, just on “the
bend”, stands an old factory,
now a builder’s store. It
clearly straddles the mill leat, as can be
seen by arches either side, and has a
channel in the floor of the factory in
which once sat an undershot wheel,
driven by the leat from Beam Weir, the
same water being used by the Corn Mill
further downstream.
Almost all the wool that Devon needed
for the county’s cloth trade in the 16th
and 17th centuries came from its own
sheep. Thousands of shearmen,
combers, weavers, spinners, dyers and
others were employed in its processing.
At one time virtually every Devon
village would have had spinners and
weavers working away in their cottages
to supply cloth merchants. Some idea of
the scale of the industry can be
gathered from the fact that Devon
merchants sold 8,235 cloths - an annual
sale of over 100,000 yards of cloth.
From research, it is evident that this
building went through a series of
commercial uses.
Soon after 1600, the Devonshire
woollen industry, which had risen to
great wealth on the production of light
fabrics of worsted-type cloth (known as
Kerseys), moved over to the production
of serges or perpetuanos - fine, hardwearing, long lasting cloths brightly
coloured and cheap as their name
indicates.
With the Restoration, the Devonshire
cloth industry expanded vigorously
making serges for the Dutch, German
and Spanish markets. Up to 1715 the
Devon serge industry was the most
important branch of the great English
woollen industry. The continual wars
killed the overseas market.
In 1838 there were still 39 spinning
mills employing more than 3000 looms
but towards the end of the century the
trade had dwindled.
Today there is not one woollen and
The Tucking Mill 2001
189
The following residents were involved
with the wool industry:-
Our Woollen Mill.
TURTONS BLANKET FACTORY.
1851 Census: Francis Cann 52,
Weaver.
John Turton 69, Woollen manufacturer.
Elizabeth Fross 24, Weaver.
It was established sometime prior to
1850. Cloth for the blankets was
probably woven in the surrounding
villages and farms but the mechanical
processes of carding the wool (to align
the fibres) and fulling the cloth
(cleansing, shrinking and thickening by
moisture, heat and pressure) were
carried out here.
1861 Census: John Jacombe 35,
Master worsted spinner, Chopes Bridge.
Elizabeth Jacombe 37, worsted spinner,
Chopes Bridge.
Fanny Ashplant 20, (servant) Chopes
Bridge.
John Turton 79, Woollen manufacturer,
Chopes Bridge.
Quoting from Strong’s ‘Industries of
North Devon’, Turton’s Blanket factory
closed in 1850 and a Tannery took over
the building!
In 1856 in the Post Office Directory,
there was also a woollen factory in the
village where, John Anderson was a
woollen manufacturer - was this
situated in another building?
190
An early photograph of the Tucking Mill with the Mill Leat in the foreground
AND THEN A TANNERY
In the Census returns dated 1851-1891
there are several ladies mentioned who
were Gloveresses & Kid Glove makers.
GLOVE MAKING.
It is assumed that these women
collected the skins from the Tannery
and worked from home therefore
supplementing the family income.
There was a water driven mill used as a
Tannery here in 1850, where the fulling
of skins was carried out, prior to a steam
engine being installed in the
Torrington Yard.
The finished articles would be returned
to a central base from where many of
the gloves would be exported via
Bideford to London and foreign
markets.
This business followed on from Turton’s
Blanket Factory.
In Whites Directory of 1850 four glove
makers are listed:
John Burrow of Barton Lane
Thomas Lane of Halfpenny Lane
John Long of Stoneman Way
Thomas Keen of Wilcot
Glove making was a major industry in
Torrington and in fact is still being
undertaken today although to a lesser
degree.
Source - ‘Strongs Industries of North
191