Brookfield Weaving Factory

Where no Shuttles Fly

(By Sam Johnson)

I went to work In Brookfield Weaving Factory In February 1943. I had just completed three years of my apprenticeship as a tenter, or, to give It Its more up-market name, a power-loom overlooker, In Murphy and Stevensons, Dromore where I was most fortunate to work under George "Buffer" McQulllan, who assured me he would divulge all tips, "wrinkles" and trade secrets he knew about tenting. He was as good as his word and many a time In the years thereafter I would silently thank Geordie for his Imparted 'know how' which solved many a problem and side stepped many a pitfall with which our trade is strewn. Though it happened fifty years ago, I lucidly recall travelling by train to Banbridge, there being no 'bus service at that early hour. When trains stopped operating in this area, many people bemoaned their passing, but most of the travelling public themselves were to blame for I remember signing a petition to the Transport Board requesting them to put on a 'bus service to Banbridge, leaving Dromore at 7.30 am to allow us to be In our work places at 8 am. For, while the trains were very reliable and punctual, it was a great Inconvenience to have to walk to the station from the town, especially in Inclement weather, as opposed to boarding a 'bus that was literally passing one door. So it was with trepidation that! approached Brookfield by the cinder path that lay across the fields from Peggies Loanin. The factory chimney was vomiting great gusts of black smoke and the stout walls enclosing all the buildings, which rose in tiers on Their levels. It could have been designed by a drunken architect to be built on the side of a steep hill and to be placed so far from the main road only added to its mindless situation.

I found the lowest level to contain the coal yards, furnaces and boilers and the engine room, now no longer in use as electric motors were installed throughout the factory. The smithy too, was located here, as was the pumphouse and iron store. On the next level was the mechanics shop and the carpenters shop adjoined the weaving shed which contained about 350 Atherton looms, packed so closely together that parts of the loom had to be temporarily dismantled to give enough space for the Insertion of a new beam of yarn in place of the spent one. So narrow were the aisles where the weavers stood to tend their looms, that it was jokingly said when a newcomer to the weaving arrived she was measured round the hips and If the tape exceeded 40 inches she was deemed unsuitable as "the quart wouldn't go into the pint pot". Can you Imagine the claustrophobic atmosphere with 350 looms and about 200 workers and the temperature in the summer reaching the middle 80's and the BO intensified by jets of steam squirting from overhead pipes to humidify the air, for yarn, especially linen, weaves best in such conditions. The air was so full of fluff - or "pouce" as we called it - that It covered everything including our lungs with a fine film of dust. On the face of it, medical men would have condemned it as a health hazard, but fortunately - mercifully fortunately - the dusty conditions were not injurious and many workers spent over 50 years working here and their health was not Impaired. A prime example of this was a little man called Jimmy Stewart, a most industrious worker who brushed the factory floor continuously and literally lived in a cloud of dust, but lived to well over 80 years. So much then for the weaving shed. The floor above that housed the winding shop and the dressing shop where the yarn was treated with a liquid size which strengthened It. The "Drawer-Ins" piled their craft here too and In preparing the yarns for the looms they handled hundreds of thousands of Individual threads In a tedious Job requiring constant concentration.

The rest of the floor was taken up by the Cloth Passers who Inspected the woven cloth for Imperfections. If the weavers were guilty of careless work, they would be "sent for" by the head Cloth Passer, who would lecture them severely and even fine them In small amounts which would be deducted from their pay. Indeed, throughout the trade In Ulster, there were those Cloth Passers who were tyrants and looked upon with loathing and not a little fear by weavers who had to meekly take tongue lashings and be belittled by these ogres who delighted In demeaning the errant worker. To give them their due, they had a Job to do and faulty cloth wouldn't sell and liable to result In cancelled orders. The tale was told of a timid little man who was continually "hauled over the coals" for faulty cloth and threatened with the sack. There he would stand, meekly and dejectedly while he was "told oft" and threatened with the sack. However, he won a fair amount on the Pools and he promptly resigned from weaving. His neighbours then noted a schoolboy going Into his house each morning and shortly reappearing again. Overcome with curiosity they asked him what he was up to. The boy explained he had been given a shilling and a key to open the ex-weaver's door, go upstairs and waken him and tell him "the Cloth Passer wants you". Where-upon the old man would turn his back to him and, tucking the blankets more cosily around him, would snarl, 'Tell the Cloth Passer to go to Hell!" It was revenge of a kind. The third level housed the Darning Loft where weaving faults were repaired to give a good-as-new appearance to the cloth.

The yarn store was also located there, the fourth level contained the offices, toilets, canteen and chimney stack. For a factory to be built Into the side of a hill was something of a sick architectural joke. Apparently It had all started off around the turn of the century when a small depot was built for the distribution of yarn and reception of cloth for the hand-loom cottage weavers. Power-looms superseded the hand-looms and Brookfield Factory evolved from a very rudimentary beginning. When I came to Brookfield, weavers only tended 2 looms each, but with the addition of machinery that stopped a loom Immediately when a thread broke, It enabled them to tend 4 looms. In 1964 Atherton Looms were replaced by Northrop Automatic Looms which, though more complicated, produced much more cloth with less labour Involved and enabled the weaver to attend 7 looms. It was at this point that Courtaulds, who had taken over Smyth's Weaving Company. introduced a Bonus Scheme pioneered by Personell, a weaver rose from £6.50 per week to over £10. I remember vividly when the tenters reached the heady sum of £20 per week we had become £1000 a year men. It seemed an astronomical sum at the time, but with raging Inflation, we were soon paying more than that In income tax. The new bonus scheme In Brookfield was a great success and the manner in which It was achieved was a new way of calculating wages. stopped, so you had more yards than a weaver who had weak yarn which entailed much more work and less cloth.

Alter a prolonged study of the work content Involved, various yarns were paid accordingly. This resulted In a great levelling up of wages and a grand Incentive for the worker. Elementary "time-and-motion" played its part too. There is always a better way to do most jobs and the old mindless method typified by the saying "my lather threshed here and I'll thresh here", gave way to more logical adjustments. Perhaps the greatest advance was In the training of new-camera to weaving. Where formerly a young girl was taught by an older weaver she knew, she was liable to adopt the bad methods and habits of her tutor. Instead, learners were schooled by a competent Instructor and emerged fully conversant with her craft. With the Installation of 200 automatic looms, compared with 350 old type, there was much more room In the weaving shed and the provision of two large extractor fans greatly improved the environment. A "Housewife's Shift" was put Into operation and started from 5.30 pm to 10 pm. It was a great innovation for people seeking to supplement the family purse. So work went with a swing in Brookfield for the next 16 years after which, things started to change In the textile world. Places like Egypt and other emerging countries who had formerly grown and sold cotton In Its raw state to Britain and later bought it back in the form of manufactured clothing etc., were now processing It themselves and swamping the world markets with cheap labour textiles. Inflation, too, was putting a high price on British goods and eventually the Ulster Textile Trade began to experience the blight that was closing mainland factories, Articles were appearing In the daily press warning of Impending redundancies and hardships.

Rumours turned Into realities and Brookfield started Its rundown in 1980. Workers were paid off and the scrap merchants moved in to break up the machinery almost before the bearings had cooled, It somehow seemed obscene to see "looms slaughtered" In this way. It was devastating to think that all the skill and expertise accumulated over the years by many above average workers was no longer required. Brookfield finally closed down in December 1980. The true worth of many friendships among the workforce came home to us when our daily contacts ended. It took a long time to adjust to the absence of the "daily round, the common task" that had been our working day together. It was the end of an era. Beside a constant and well paid job for 37 years, Brookfield gave me lots of happy memories. It had often been said "If you can't work in Brookfield you could work nowhere!" There was a certain happiness air about the place and In no way were we hounded by the management. There were always pranks being played and enjoyed, providing you weren't the victim. And many a joke backfired, like a sweepstake on a big handicap race. There were nearly 40 horses competing at a £1 a time and the no-hoper at 200 to 1 was deliberately assigned to the biggest leg-puller in the place, but he had the last laugh when his horse won. Beside the toilets and canteens there were other "hidey-holes" where workers took a necessary smoke and breather from time to time. One of the most popular places was the oil store where the proximity of the boilers kept the oil In a fluid state. It was seldom without occupants and a reclining figure had been crudely drawn mural-like by me on one wall with the addition of the following words that said It all:

Some come here to sleep and snooze
Others come their horses to choose
Some come here to "Spot the Ball"
Clock in, Clock out and do damn-all

From time to time, In our moments of Idleness, we would have a sing-song. We had some good singers who were not averse, with a little encouragement, to render some ditties that were peculiar only to Brookfield! In particular do I recall Jack the Joiner and Albert the oiler who when they sang together had the sweetest blend of voices I ever heard and their rendering of "Dobbins Flowery Vale" was a piece of pure delight. They also had another song, sung at the opening of Orange Halls and such functions which told of Biblical happenings such as David slaying Goliath, In which one verse ran:

Five stones he took
From out the brook
And placed them In his scrip
And with one blow he laid him low etc.

I had my own parodied version of this which we all sang with gusto:

Five stones he took from out the Brook
And placed them in his scrip
And with one blow he laid them low
And split his upper lip

Though nail on the toe did Inward grow
He walked it to Dromore
He twanged his sling, we heard him sing
The Sash my Father wore

To Jericho the Tribes did go
The Walls they did surround
To lay them low, the horns did blow
And make a powerful sound

At drop of hat the Walls fell flat
The mason was to blame
Also the gent who made cement
And Moorhead was his name

In days of old, or so we're told
The Israelites did roam
They had a thirst, twas not the first
When they were far from home

They all did laugh when Moses's staff
Did beat upon the plain
They got a shock when he struck rock
And burst a water-main

Now to conclude, I think I should
I must be on my way
It's well for you has naught to do
But sit around all day

If caught by boss my job I'll loss
And you will hear me wail
"Farewell to you and Brookfield too
And Dobbins Flowery Vale"

The music room where "concerts" took place, was the carpenters shop and a looking glass placed at just the right angle inside the window, enabled us to observe bosses without the lookout himself being seen, though I'm sure the bosses knew - via the grapevine - what went on. The theme for yet another song came up when Brookfield began to weave Khaki Drill cloth for the soldiers uniforms. This required additional machinery called a Dobby, which was mounted on the upper framework of the loom. The loom was fastened to the floor with iron pegs, but the additions of the Dobby caused excessive vibration, which caused the loom pegs to loosen and the loom to dance about the floor. So I made up a song about the dance, which we sung to the popular air of "Do you want your old Lobby washed down. Mrs Brown?"

We once had a Dobby at which we did work
But It wobbled all over the floor
We tried hard to anchor it In the one spot
But lt Jiggled right out through the door
We sent for the fitters who came with a rush
The foreman was seen with a frown
When the weaver said "Mister, im hard on the push
And I want my old Dobby lashed down"

Chorus
Do you want your old Dobby washed down Mrs Brown
Do you want your old Dobby washed down

And the weaver said "Mister, I'm hard on the push
And I want my old Dobby washed down"
The place where they lashed it was to a tall tree
And around it the birds used to sit
They covered the weaver with feathers and seed
And the Dobby they covered with - grit
They blocked up the levers; they ruined the shed
And they stopped all the wheels going round
And it took little Jimmy two weeks-and-a-half
Just to get her old Dobby washed down

Chorus
Do you want your old Dobby lashed down Mrs Brown
Do you want your old Dobby washed down

And it took little Jimmy two weeks-and-a-half
Just to get her old Dobby washed down"
The Dobby lay silent It seldom was "on'
And the weaver was losing her time
She lost all her bonus, her temper as well
For the loom never earned her a dime
She came for the Tenter and cried with a sob
As the tears from her eyes hit the ground
"Bring over a hammer, I give you a hand
For I want my old Dobby smashed down"

Chorus
Do you want your old Dobby smashed down Mrs Brown
Do you want your old Dobby smashed down?

We brought her a hammer and gave her a hand
And we got her old Dobby smashed down, we did
We got her old Dobby smashed down

(How's that!!)

Brookfield was now working under the trade name of "Moygashel" and its fabrics were top in the fashion world. Courtaulds sprang a pleasant surprise by granting us a pension - not dating back to 1964 when they first took over, but from the time we were first employed by Smyth's Weaving Company. They also had long service awards for those working with 33 years service in the firm and we, along with employees from Dungannon and Ballymena, were entertained at the "Inn on the Park" at yearly intervals, when the choice of wrist watches, carriage clocks, canteens of cutlery, tea or coffee sliver services, were presented.

Courtaulds top brass were there in the person of Mr. Nightingale and his lieutenants and to wine and dine and swop yarns on a one-to-one basis was unbelievable novelty, for up to that time there had always been a great gulf fixed between the employer and the employee. The "crack" was first class and I have no doubt the tales we told them were bandied around the boardrooms of England when they got home. My own manager, the late Herbie Anderson. who was with us, suggested I might do a poem of thanks which he would send for inclusion in the Courtaulds monthly magazine and while my creaking cranium cannot recall all the verses, these few verses will give you the flavour of what it was all about.

The Brookfield Day

Miss McCullagh wrote to me
And she said 'You've thirty-three -
Years working with Moygashel on the Staff
And there's going to be a spree
In Dungannon and it's free
Would you like to come?" and I replied "Not half
With Big Joe, along with me
And wee Aggie that made three,
The firm soon showed they didn't count the cost
For they made us feel like swells
With our names In our lapels
A precaution least the three of us got lost
And a Nightingale was there
(Not the one from Berkeley Square)
As a business man I found him most astute
For he told me I had "flair"
And he bade me take the chair
So I lifted it and stuck it In the boot
And In days to come my mind I'll backward cast
And whenever I take stock
I will count my carriage clock
Very Special - It's their "present" from my "past"

I finished work Just before Christmas 1980 and still see many of my friends - dear friends - when I visit Banbridge.
And In the quiet moments like when I lie awake before falling asleep, I parade them through my mind and relive those good old days and the antics we got up to. I've said It before and I repeat "If you couldn't work In Brookfield you could work nowhere." I have never gone back to look over the old factory. I don't fancy looking at a smokeless chimney standing like an obelisk In a graveyard that was once a factory. A factory where I had tremendous Job satisfaction - but where now, no shuttles fly.

---

Thread making at Seapatrick
(By T.A. Moore)

Frederick William Hayes was born on 11th June, 1802, the third son of William Hayes of Millmount. William Hayes came as a young man to Banbridge, took over the old Reilly cornmill at Millmount, in the townland of Edenderry and started a bleachworks there.

In 1834, Frederick William Hayes acquired glebe land at the rear of Seapatrick Parish Church and built weaving sheds close to the River Bann. He also built Seapatrick House at that time, on the Banbridge side of his new weaving premises. Seapatrick House was built in the style of the great Linen Houses of the period, incorporating a gate lodge and driveway from Lurgan Road, with a lawn sweeping down to a riverside driveway fronted by pillared double gates at the bottom of Kiln Lane. His wife, Isabella Boyd, was the daughter of the owner of the Belfast Foundry, and they had four sons and one daughter at Seapatrick House.

In 1840, Frederick William Hayes ceased production of linen cloth and started linen yarn spinning and thread making in the premises. The weaving sheds were single storey and stone built with "Northlight" roofing. The "Northlight" roof was very popular at that time in the construction of factory premises. It consisted of a series of inverted V structures, which, when glazed on the short side, provided a maximum of natural light for the weaving operators below. In contrast, further buildings at Seapatrick Mills were in keeping with the traditional mill buildings of the period, strong, stone built edifices three or more storeys high. During those early years, Frederick William Hayes established a good manufacturing base for his products, which were given the name "Royal Irish Linen Threads". He died on 13th October, 1853, aged 51 years and was interned in Seapatrick Churchyard. His eldest son, William Hayes, succeeded him in running the mills.

Extension of Premises

William Hayes married his cousin, Martha Mary Law of Hazelbank House, Lawrencetown, in 1855 and took up residence in Seapatrick House. During his period of management with F.W. Hayes & Company, he successfully extended the premises. It was recorded at the time that the firm occupied 60 acres and employed 700 people. To meet the needs of an expanding workforce, William Hayes embarked on a programme of house building. Rows of workers' dwellings were built on the right-hand side of Kilpike Road, from the junction with Lurgan Road. He also built a short terrace of management houses fronting the Lurgan Road, opposite the churchyard. A corner shop was provided at this point, which was controlled by the company, to meet the needs of the workers and their families. The company also built a new schoolhouse of character design, in dark stone, opposite the entrance to the mills, for the education of the children of the employees.

Trading warehouses were established in major English and Scottish cities during the period and a selling agency, H.B. Shaen & Company was arranged in New York. William Hayes had four sons and two daughters. He died on 12th July, 1876 and was interned in a new burial plot in Seapatrick Churchyard. Although still a minor, the eldest son, Frederick William Hayes II succeeded his father in running the firm. The management team was strengthened by the recruitment of Charles Hugh McCall as general mill manager. A few years later Samuel George Fenton, a Belfast man, joined the firm to assist with the overall running of the mills.

Trade fairs were held regularly in major cities during the latter years of the nineteenth century. F.W. Hayes & Company won gold medals for the excellence of their linen threads at Dublin 1882, Cork 1883 and Belfast 1895. Before the days of aerial photography, the mill and factory owners employed professional artists to paint an "impression" of their manufacturing premises. These pictures were later colour printed on large advertising show cards, for distribution to trading warehouses and overseas agencies, as well as being used on printed packaging materials.

Flax from Europe

In the early years at Seapatrick Mills Irish flax was the standard raw material for the manufacture of linen yarns for thread-making. This was readily available from scutching mills, through established flax markets held in the provincial towns. As the years of the 1800's progressed, foreign flax was steadily coming in. Russian flax, flax from the Baltic States and Belgian flax were becoming popular with the mill owners of Ulster. The flax grown around the Belgian town of Courtrai eventually became established as the superior flax for linen manufacture. But the spinning and thread making machinery changed little over the period. Machines used for preparing, spinning and twisting the linen yarns were highly engineered. Most of the machinery used for these operations was manufactured in the Province, the leading makers being, Jas. Reynolds & Co, Linfield Road, Jas. Mackie & Sons, Springfield Road, and Fairbairn, Lawson, Combe, Barbour, Limited, Albert Foundry, Belfast. These firms had developed on the success of the linen industry. The machinery used by F.W. Hayes & Company for the polishing, winding, copping, spooling, and balling of linen threads was usually purchased in the Manchester area, where a substantial cotton thread industry was being supplied. These machines could handle both linen and cotton threads.

Many manufacturing operations were being done by hand at Seapatrick Mills in the second half of the nineteenth century. The preparation of the flax fibre for later preparing and spinning operations being a good example. The natural flax was taken through a series of combing operations, called roughing and hackling. Rows of men in the flax lofts pulled "pieces" of flax through blocks of combing pins to entangle the fibre and remove the ancillary "tow" from the main fibre, called "line". After the turn of the century, large flax hackling machines were introduced at Seapatrick Mills to considerably improve the efficiency of these operations.

Further building of houses for the workers in the mills took place around 1890. An attractive red brick terrace of ten management houses (Milfort Terrace) was erected on Lurgan Road, opposite the entrance to Seapatrick Rectory. A red brick terrace of 14 workers' houses (Bannview Terrace) was built at the other end of the property, on the road to Lenaderg. Finally, eight semi-detached houses (Seapatrick Villas) were erected opposite St. Patrick's Chapel-of-ease (the "wee" Church).

In 1895, Frederick William Hayes II with his wife Lily, left Seapatrick House and took up residence at "Clareen", Sydney Parade, Dublin. He died there on 2nd April, 1896, aged 37 years and was brought back to Seapatrick Churchyard for burial. The last member of the Hayes thread-making family to reside in the Seapatrick district was John Law Hayes, a younger brother of Fredrick William Hayes II. John Law Hayes was not involved in managing the family firm, but lived, with church benevolence, at Seapatrick Rectory until he died, unmarried, on 7th March, 1934, aged 74 years.

Samuel George Fenton became the first managing director of the Private Limited Company of F.W. Hayes and moved into Seapatrick House with his wife, Lillie Jane. Their first daughter, Dorothy Caroline Fenton, was born there on 2nd October, 1896. A second daughter, Irene Lillie Fenton was also born there on 22nd June, 1899. He was to take F.W. Hayes & Co., Limited, into the amalgamation of thread manufacturing firms that became The Linen Thread Co., Limited, before the new century dawned.

American Thread Making

It was once claimed by a leading linen thread manufacturer that the most profitable years for the firm were the years of the American Civil War, 1860-1865. This can be understood when consideration is given to the amount of linen thread required to manufacture huge quantities of military ordnance, for two opposing armies in civil conflict, on that vast continent. In those years, manufactured supplies required on the American mainland were still largely bought from the British homeland. The profitable years of the early 1860s placed some leading textile firms in a strong economic position, looking for manufacturing development. A very high import tax on linen thread, imposed by the United States Government at that time, made the establishment of American thread mills a very lucrative proposition.

William Barbour & Sons, Hilden Mills, Lisburn, developed their Barbour Mills at Paterson, New Jersey, in 1865, to be followed by the W. & J. Knox Company of Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, who gave their name to an American thread mill at Baltimore. Finlayson, Bousefield & Company, a leading Scottish linen thread manufacturer, with mills at Johnstone, outside Glasgow, started linen thread manufacturing at North Grafton, Massachusetts. In 1879, Dunbar, McMaster & Company of Gilford Mills, took over buildings at Greenwich, New York to establish linen thread mills. F.W. Hayes & Company never developed an American manufacturing subsidiary.

Members of the mill owner's family usually settled in the United States to establish and maintain the new enterprise, and, in many cases, employees in the home mills were given the opportunity to settle with their families to staff the American mills.

Banbridge Historical Society has links with American people whose ancestors left Gilford to work in the New York Mills.

The Linen Thread Company Formed

Towards the close of the century markets had become difficult and excessive competition was damaging the industry. Colonel William Barbour, in America, successfully proposed to the Marshall Mills of Newark, New Jersey and the Finlayson North Grafton Mills the idea of joining forces. He then sailed across the Atlantic and North Grafton Mills the idea of joining forces. He then sailed across the Atlantic and gained the support of the Hilden Barbours and the Knox family at Kilbirnie. This bold act of amalgamation carried out by a handful of leading firms, resulted in the formation of The Linen Thread Co., Limited, in 1898. Other thread companies of importance joined later.

F.W Hayes & Company amalgamated with The Linen Thread Company in 1899, as did Dunbar, McMaster & Company, with both their Gilford and New York Mills, in 1901. Other British linen thread manufacturers who joined at that time were :- Ainsworth & Sons, Cleator Moor, Cumberland; Robert Stewart & Sons, Antrim Street, Lisburn; and Crawford Brothers, Beith, Ayrshire. More than 30 years later the Group purchased the thread manufacturing interests of Lindsay, Thompson & Co., Limited, Flax Street, Crumlin Road, Belfast.

It was primarily intended that the new company would market the product brands of the amalgamated mills. The identity of the mills, the future development of their prosperous personal traditions and immensely valuable local skills would be preserved. However, in a few years, amalgamation had prompted both rationalisation and standardisation in the subsidiary mills. Early in the 1 900s, thread manufacturing ceased at the Gilford Mills of Dunbar, McMaster & Company. The product brands were retained but the production of the sole sewing threads and shoe yarns was transferred to Barbours Hilden Mills, while Seapatrick Mills undertook the manufacture of the linen sewing threads, bookbinders threads and carpet threads. This programme also took place in the mainland mills. Gilford Mills became a yarn spinning and bleaching unit, their purpose, to augment the yarn supplies of the other group mills and to market a range of linen yarns to weavers and other industrial uses at home and overseas.

Extensive building undertaken

With the influx of new production, extensive building was undertaken at Seapatrick Mills. A new office block was built close to the churchyard wall to house both management and administrative staff, a works canteen, beside the main gate; a flax machine room; rove store; bundling room and an impressive new thread mill. This housed the thread polishing department on the ground floor and the thread making-up department on the second floor. The building incorporated a flat roof with a parapet wall, to allow the addition of a third storey, should this be required at a later date. Unlike the original mill buildings of Frederick William Hayes, which were largely stone built, all the new buildings were in an attractive red brick finish.

After the amalgamation, the head office of The Linen Thread Company was established at 52 Bothwell Street, in central Glasgow. This building also held the sales department and accounting section. F.W. Hayes & Company had established independent trading warehouses and selling agencies at home and overseas, from the middle of the 1800's These were run down under the central marketing plan of the new company. In the next few years, The Linen Thread Company established sales outlets in all corners of the world for the distribution of yarns, threads and nets manufactured by the amalgamated mills. These roughly took the form of company owned stock warehouses in the British Isles and English speaking countries overseas, registered selling companies in the European sector and contracted franchise agents in other foreign markets.

Scope for New Products

Through this international sales network Hayes 'Royal Irish Linen Threads" were reaching markets never envisaged y their founder. There was also the opportunity for development of new products, acceptable to these markets. To help with this work the parent company set up a Research and Development Department at Hilden.

Seapatrick Mills had long specialised in the manufacture of linen jacquard harness cord. This was used in the weaving factories from 1870 for the manipulation of punched cards on a jacquard weaving loom, to produce intricate damask patterns in the cloth. Linen harness cord was of heavy construction, having had a double twisting operation. It was found that a new product could be produced on the technology of the harness cord and in the 1920s Hayes Twisted Flax Fishing Lines went on the market. They were particularly successful in Norway, South Africa and Australia in the years ahead.

The success of the amalgamation was being felt at Seapatrick and the Hayes Company undertook a further building programme, to update their housing stock, in the years leading up to World War I. Land was acquired, from the church authorities, opposite the entrance to the mills and 28 semi-detached houses (Hayes Park) were built. The plans for the estate were prepared by William Larmour, the Banbridge architect, to an idea put forward by one of the Barbour ladies of Hilden. This involved the building of English style cottages in grey ornamental block, with high pitch roofs and dormer-type windows. The cottages were laid out with large gardens and planted with trees, shrubs and hedges, giving the appearance of a garden village. The estate was served by a winding driveway. Samuel George Fenton, who successfully directed F. W. Hayes & Company for over forty years, died on 5th September, 1936, and was interned in Dundonald Cemetery. John Doherty Barbour, of Lisburn, became the new managing director.

Seapatrick Cotton Threads

Cotton threads were produced at Seapatrick Mills for the first time in the 1930',. This was brought about by the introduction of consumer articles to match the changing tastes of people in the years between the wars. The suitcase trade was an example of this trend. Suitcases were being manufactured in cheaper fibreboard which did not warrant the use of linen thread. A Hayes "Hayco" Brand Cotton Sewing Thread was introduced to this industry as a substitute for linen. From this initial action, a whole new market developed for cotton threads in other sewing fields. In the next 25 years, cotton threads had reached about a quarter of total production at the mills. Seapatrick Mills never undertook the spinning and doubling of cotton yarns. Supplies of natural cotton threads were purchased from the Lancashire cotton mills and boiled, dyed, polished and made-up in the thread mill.

The years of the second world war brought considerable change to the activities of F.W. Hayes & Company. All the selling companies and warehouses progressively closed down in the European sector. Export sales were almost impossible. The thread mill turned quickly to the production of many thread types required for manufacturing equipment for war. Threads in khaki, navy-blue and R.A.F. blue were commonplace in the production areas. When hostilities ended, the markets were quickly reinstated and Seapatrick Mills returned to supplying thread products to a world market. John Doherty Barbour left Seapatrick in the early 1950s to take up a senior post on the main board of The Linen Thread Company. He was replaced by Samuel Noel Cochrane, a Gilford man, who had served the Group in manufacturing in Brazil. Seapatrick House was demolished and a modem red brick villa built on the lawn for the new managing director.

End of an Era

In 1954, The Linen Thread Company sold seven of the U.S. mills controlled by "The Linen Thread Co., Inc." to an American textile organisation and undertook a programme of diversification into engineering and electrical goods manufacture. The name of the company was changed to Lindustries Limited, to reflect the changing trend and The Linen Thread Company was reduced to the status of "Textile Division" in the new Group. Samuel Noel Cochrane moved to Gilford Mills to take total managerial control and was replaced as managing director by Alexander W. Fleming, who had held managerial positions at Hilden Mills.

In 1957, the Finlayson, Bousfield Mills at Johnstone, Renfrewshire, were closed down. This reflected a declining world market for linen threads, against the new synthetic threads in nylon and "terylene'. Alexander W. Fleming left Seapatrick Mills to take-up the post of manufacturing director in the Textile Division of Lindustries Limited. He was replaced by John Francis Pim, who handled his responsibilities in F.W. Hayes & Company with a youthful enthusiasm. This extended to starting Seapatrick Mills Recreation Club, that excelled on the football field, and at some pleasant dances organised in the village school.

Before the end of the 1950s the home mills lost their independent identity and were absorbed into a new manufacturing group, Eltico Mills, Limited.

Early in the l960s the American consultancy firm, Kinsey & Company was commissioned by Lindustries Limited, to carry out a survey on the activities and efficiencies of the home mills. From their report a decision was taken to close Seapatrick Mill on 30th September, 1962. After a progressive rundown of production operations and the transfer of machinery and material stocks to Hilden Mill, the premises became vacant, thus ending 120 years of thread making at Seapatrick.

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