Butterworth and Dickinson
TypePartnership
IndustryTextile machinery
Founded1871
Defunct1931
Headquarters
Manchester
,
England
ProductsLooms

Butterworth and Dickinson were textile machinery manufacturers in Burnley, Lancashire, England. Known as "Butts and Dicks", the company made looms that were exported around the world.

History

Advert for a Butterworth and Dickinson calico loom

The Saunder Bank works was founded by Samuel Dickinson. It was inherited by his nephew William Banks from Tosside, Bolton-by-Bowland in 1871 and he went into partnership with John Butterworth, of "Oak Bank". The partnership operated the Saunder Bank works which it extended and took on the Globe Iron Works.[1] Around 1889, the company built new premises at Rosegrove. The company had interests in cotton manufacture at the Westgate Shed. William Dickinson was an active businessman who served as Mayor of Burnley.

The company was known as "Butts and Dicks" and made looms that were exported around the world.[2] In the recession of the 1930s, Platt Brothers, Howard & Bullough, Brooks & Doxey, Asa Lees, Dobson & Barlow, Joseph Hibbert, John Hetherington & Sons and Tweedales and Smalley merged to become Textile Machinery Makers Ltd, but the individual units continued to trade under their own names until the 1970, when they were rationalised into one company, Platt UK Ltd.[3] In 1991 the company name changed to Platt Saco Lowell. [4]

The looms were in less demand after the 1950s as the British cotton industry declined. One use was made possible by utilising the looms to weave fibreglass. The resulting cloth was used to create nosecones for fighter aircraft and to create moulds for forming the nosecone of Concorde.[5]

Some looms are in museum collections including the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester[5] and the National Wool Museum.[6]

References

  1. ↑ SD 836325 53°47′13″N 2°15′00″W / 53.787°N 2.250°W
  2. ↑ Men of Burnley Archived 2013-01-16 at archive.today, accessed April 2013
  3. ↑ "Platt maker of quality textile machinery and parts". Archived from the original on 29 December 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
  4. ↑ "Howard and Bullough, Cotton Machinery Manufacturers". Retrieved 26 January 2009.
  5. 1 2 From a Littleborough loom to a supersonic aeroplane, BBC news, 2010, accessed 10 April 2013
  6. ↑ Historic Machinery, museumwales.ac.uk, accessed 10 April 2013

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