History
The company was officially founded by Thomas Fox in Wellington 1772, after taking over the family business from his father, Edward. At this time, it is believed that the company employed up to 450 people in and around the area.
During the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, the company brought the entire production process in house. With the wool sorting, spinning, drying and weaving processes all under one roof, the Fox family were able to exert more control over quality and increase production. Not only was the total production housed on the one site, but ancillary crafts also took place at the mill. These included basket weaving; to produce the baskets used for holding wool and yarns, joineries; for the wooden requirements of the site, book binding; to produce record and accounts books as well as metal forges and workshops, to produce and maintain the machinery.
At its peak the company employed approximately 5,000 people and owned and operated nine mills and factories in Somerset, Devon, Galashiels and Oxfordshire.
The Fox family had their own legal tender from 1787 until 1921; Lloyds bank in Wellington is to this day known as the Fox Branch.
From the late 19th century into the 20th century, production became increasingly focused on fabrics for the British military. During the Boer War, Fox Brothers developed the new serge drape mixture know as 'khaki', which eventually led to the demise of the British Army's traditional 'redcoats'. During the First World War, Fox Brothers completed the largest ever, single order for textiles: 852 miles of cloth supplied to the Ministry of Defence. This was used to make 'the puttee' - spiral leg puttees were used by the military as a part of the regular soldier uniform.
Explore
It’s a classic, we’ve all seen it on here, most have been. I haven’t, again it just goes back to me being either too lazy to travel back then, or I just couldn’t be arsed. Either way the time was now, and it still is a brilliant place to see. Some very old machinery in both sites, it’s had a bit of a tidy up too in the dyeworks. Since my visit it would appear the roof has collapsed in the engine house though, which is a shame, but not surprising. It was a bit of a last minute thing so we started to run out of light only getting there in the evening but we managed to cover quite a bit.
Pics - Mill Porn
I’ll start off with the engine house containing a George Mills & co of Radcliffe Steam fire pump engine, what a beaut. And a rather large WH Allen T47 Diesel lump, and then the usual Mather & Platt goodies.
Thats a Iphone 11 pro max just for scale.
The boiler house, which currently has a few lancashire boilers in place
Still even got a bit of coal!
Then onto the rest of the mill site.
Clinging on by a ratchet strap
The company was officially founded by Thomas Fox in Wellington 1772, after taking over the family business from his father, Edward. At this time, it is believed that the company employed up to 450 people in and around the area.
During the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, the company brought the entire production process in house. With the wool sorting, spinning, drying and weaving processes all under one roof, the Fox family were able to exert more control over quality and increase production. Not only was the total production housed on the one site, but ancillary crafts also took place at the mill. These included basket weaving; to produce the baskets used for holding wool and yarns, joineries; for the wooden requirements of the site, book binding; to produce record and accounts books as well as metal forges and workshops, to produce and maintain the machinery.
At its peak the company employed approximately 5,000 people and owned and operated nine mills and factories in Somerset, Devon, Galashiels and Oxfordshire.
The Fox family had their own legal tender from 1787 until 1921; Lloyds bank in Wellington is to this day known as the Fox Branch.
From the late 19th century into the 20th century, production became increasingly focused on fabrics for the British military. During the Boer War, Fox Brothers developed the new serge drape mixture know as 'khaki', which eventually led to the demise of the British Army's traditional 'redcoats'. During the First World War, Fox Brothers completed the largest ever, single order for textiles: 852 miles of cloth supplied to the Ministry of Defence. This was used to make 'the puttee' - spiral leg puttees were used by the military as a part of the regular soldier uniform.
Explore
It’s a classic, we’ve all seen it on here, most have been. I haven’t, again it just goes back to me being either too lazy to travel back then, or I just couldn’t be arsed. Either way the time was now, and it still is a brilliant place to see. Some very old machinery in both sites, it’s had a bit of a tidy up too in the dyeworks. Since my visit it would appear the roof has collapsed in the engine house though, which is a shame, but not surprising. It was a bit of a last minute thing so we started to run out of light only getting there in the evening but we managed to cover quite a bit.
Pics - Mill Porn
I’ll start off with the engine house containing a George Mills & co of Radcliffe Steam fire pump engine, what a beaut. And a rather large WH Allen T47 Diesel lump, and then the usual Mather & Platt goodies.
Thats a Iphone 11 pro max just for scale.
The boiler house, which currently has a few lancashire boilers in place
Still even got a bit of coal!
Then onto the rest of the mill site.
Clinging on by a ratchet strap
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