On 2nd October 1869 William Tetlow of Carrbrook signed a Service Agreement (a Contract of Employment) and agreed to work as a Master Finisher for a period of three years for John Henry Gartside of Buckton Grange and John Neild of Ashton-under-Lyne, trading under the firm of Buckton Vale Bleaching Company, in their business of Bleachers and Finishers and Printers. William agreed to well and truly serve to the best of his ability, to provide all the information he had about every method of finishing, not to divulge any secrets, not to destroy any property, not to be employed in any other business, but to devote his whole time and best attention to the Buckton Vale Bleaching Company. In return he received a three year contract, £2 per week, and if he worked more than 75 hours per week overtime of £2 per week, with a further salary of a Bounty of 4d for every hundred pieces of goods finished by him. This agreement specificaly excluded him from any share or interest in the business. The Bookkeeper was to enter the numbers of finished goods into the Finished Bounty Account Book, and William was entitled to examine the book at any time. William was only entitled to 21 days off work in any three month period but would receive £25 in lieu of notice should his employers wish to end the contract or if they ceased the business. Should William die during the period of the contract his Executors would receive any salary or bounty due. On 4th May 1872 William, of Brookhouses, signed a second 3 year contract and his salary was increased to £2 10/- per week and the Bounty was increased to 9d. William went on to be Manager for Messrs J H Gartside & Co, Buckton Vale Print Works. Two years of this time he spent at their works at Malony, France. In 1882 William moved to Dunblane where he was to work for the next 28 years, firstly to work as Manager at Messrs Robert Pillar & Sons and then as Manager at Ashfield Works, Kinbuck. William's death was reported in the Perthshire Constitutional & Journal 13th May 1910. He left a wife and son. Many thanks to Mrs W Martin, great-granddaughter of William, for supplying this information. It is believed that in 1860/1870 the Bleaching Fields were in Castle Clough, near to Carr Mill. The grey cloth was laid out on the ground in the open air and sprinkled with caustic soda which turned the cloth white. After this cloth was chemically whitened in the Buckton Vale Works.

Census Returns
1871
Address: Carrbrook
Tetlow	William	Head	Male	Married	Age	29	Bleaching & Dying Finisher	)All )Born )Newton )Heath
Tetlow	Esther	Wife	Female	Married	Age	25
Tetlow	William Edward	Son	Male	Unmarried	Age	4
1881
Address: Brookhouses, Carrbrook
Tetlow	William	Head	Male	Married	Age	39	Mill Manager (CP)	)All )Born )Newton )Heath
Tetlow	Esther	Wife	Female	Married	Age	34	Housekeeper
Tetlow	William Edward	Son	Male	Unmarried	Age	14	Scholar

The strike at Buckton Vale Print Works involved nearly 600 cotton bleaching, dyeing and finishing workers and lasted for 111 days from 30 August 1895, with a loss of 48,000 working days.

The strike was called by the largest of the cotton finishing trade unions the "Operative Bleachers’, Dyers’ and Finishing Association (Bolton Amalgamation)" against "J H Gartside & Co (of Manchester) Ltd", the largest of the calico printing Lancashire finishing firms, one of the largest print works in the country. Both firm and union had been established in 1866.

The Union’s Stalybridge branch had been founded at the Royal Oak pub in Millbrook 26 September 1894.

Buckton Vale works was an active and wealthy company. The works and machinery was worth £300K in 1895 and employed 1,00 workers. There had been no prior industrial dispute at the works.

The population of Stalybridge had been 140 persons between 1700-1750. With Edward Hall's first cotton mill in 1776, and the first cotton mill to acquire a steam engine in 1796 Stalybridge town grew rapidly. Prosperity was damaged during the Cotton Famine and the growth of the town slowed and then declined. Stalybridge became a hotbed of working class radicalism and Chartism and gained a reputation for industrial unrest and riot particularly during the 1842 General Strike, the Cotton Famine and the Murphy Riots.

In the 1890’s a quarter of all people over the age of 65 were paupers and half died in the workhouse, so to take strike action and risk losing a relatively secure job was taking a chance. There was no welfare state in the 1890's.

At first the Carrbrook strike was conducted under the strict control of the union and the picketing was carried out peacefully. The 1871 Trades Union Act had made it lawful to join a union and the 1875 act had made peaceful picketing lawful.

The union was encouraging workers to stop work at 6pm to comply with the latest regulations in working hours. (56 hours instead of 59). Workers requested an increase in wages, payment of overtime at time and a half, and regular payment of wages (every Friday night) intead of the stock system where workers did not get paid until the goods were sold.

At the time there were over 201 types of jobs that cotton-finishing workers were employed upon and so through the industry there was a complex wage structure in place. Workers in Carrbrook were not, overall, paid any less than at other factories.

The Gartside company choose not to continue negotiations and decided that they would only do so if they could not recruit replacement labour.

Born out of the docking and shipping disputes in other parts of the country there were now a number of free labour enterprises which stood for the rights of the working man and an objection to trade unionism. They offered a chance of employment rather than ideological affiliation.

Arrangements were made for the payment of the blacklegs, replacement labour, and 150 new hands were recruited early in the strike. The vacancies were filled from Graeme Hunters "Free Labour Exchange", a commercial organisation for workers prepared to cross picket lines. Hunter took personal charge of the organisation of the blacklegs and his confrontational style raised the temperature of the conflict and provoked the serious outbreaks of violence.

Hunter armed his men with cudgels and Winchester rifles, provoded a Kodak camera, even set up a savings scheme for them. He built temporary accommodation for his workers surounded by an electric fence and a searchlight. This accomodation was located along what is now Thornbank, Oakbank and Carr Rise.

The accomodation was in the form of a row of small houses fabricated from timber and corrugated iron sheets. Known as the "Tin Houses" the walls of the 36 temporary houses were lined with timber and were similar in basic design to many temporary buildings of the period. "Tin Town" was the nickname for Birchinlee, a village for the workers building the large Derwent and Howden Reservoirs which were constructed between 1901 and 1916. Ladybower Reservoir was built later. These reservoirs are across the moors in Derbyshire.

Hunter opened his defences up to tourists on a Sunday afternoon. He spread false rumours (the murder of a policemen and poisoning of the workers potatoes with carbolic acid).

Hunter marched his workers to the works from the railway station with a fife and drum band through the local villages, provoked and encouraged outbreaks of violence.

The strike headquarters were at the Royal Oak. A wagonette was stopped at the Royal Oak by the pickets and the occupants informed of the nature of the dispute, the driver was asked to turn his horses round and return to Stalybridge Railway Station. Finding that a blackleg had been refused refreshment at a local public house Hunter marched to the strikers HQ and demanded to be served.

2 September 1895 the union wrote to the Stalybridge and Mossley town Councils objecting to the police presence, protesting about the use of police preventing their pickets from speaking to new hands.

The firm protested to the police that they were not receiving the proper protection and so the mounted police were called out.

With the reinforcement of the police the tension increased and there was some unruly crowd behaviour and hooting.

On 27 November 1895 the workers finally capitulated, after their wages were published in the local paper. The womenfolk settled the strike and the menfolk returned to work. All the workers, except five who the firm objected to, returned to their work at their old rates of pay over a period of time. At first only some of the strikers had a job to return to, the rest, now on reduced strike pay, returned as vacancies occurred.

The strike had cost the union £5,558 in strike pay and £252 in picketing expenses. It was not until the beginning of the next century that the 56-hour week was achieved. 15 weeks on strike pay had meant severe hardship for the strikers. Strike pay amounted to 12/- (60p) for each worker, not enough for a strikers family to survive on.

One union official, Howard, was fined £20 for throwing stones, some had wanted him to receive 3 months hard labour instead. £53 was collected in 6 days to pay his fine.

The police complained about the cost to themselves (£1,000 - £602 11s for October alone) for wages, accommodation, and hire of horses.

The Independent Labour Party gained victories in Millbrook at the next local elections. Three candidates stood for the council. Two candidates were elected with significant majorities unseating the Tory councillors. The swing had been solely as a result of the strike. Tom Robinson was the first Labour Councillor for Millbrook and he served until 1898. Evelyn Waugh used to visit him at his Millbrook home.

The temporary accomodation for the non union hands, dubbed the tin huts, remained in use for many years, there being housing difficulties in those days.

The expansion of the works continued, there was an increase in the building of workers accommodation as opposed to manager’s housing. Prior to this most of the workforce walked in to work from local surrounding areas or came by train to Millbrook Sidings.

In 1897 the Institute was built to improve workers education and provide acceptable amusement.

John Henry Gartside went on to become the second chair of the CPA, played a larger part in local social life, made donations to church and school charities.

Information about the strike from the MA Thesis written by Richard Spencer.

In July 1890 the leading calico printers formed an association with an agreed schedule of trading methods.On 8th November 1899 The Calico Printers' Association came into being, the Amalgamation of 46 firms of printers, 32 in England and 14 in Scotland, which was 85% of the industry operating 830 printing machines. The CPA could produce dress goods, furnishings, linings, flannelettes and mixed fabrics for the home market and overseas trade. The Chair from 1899 to 1900 was F F Grafton, unfortunately no portrait exists of him.

The owners of the early print works that had combined to form the CPA had often owned the houses in the village where the workpeople lived, as in Carrbrook. One firm owned a print works in France and several included spinning, weaving and dyeing plants.

The Association included 5 Manchester merchants, and over 60% of the firms had been established for over 50 years. The Head Office of the Association was established in Manchester. The CPA monogram, a star, can still be seen on the keystone over the entrance at 56 Mosley Street. In 1901 land was bought for the future St James's Buildings in Oxford Street, Manchester. This building, with over 1,000 rooms and one mile of corridors, was completed and occupied in 1912. The CPA was firmly established.

The war years saw a steep decline in the industry and the number of print works in the CPA reduced from 29 in 1918 to 11 in 1939. Trade was almost at a standstill at the end of World War One, there was an acute colour shortage and the supply of coal was poor and costly.

Foreign competition was one of the most serious problems. India, traditionally a strong export market for the UK, imported instead from Japan. China's own industry began to grow rapidly. In 1913 the total exports were 7,000 million yards valued at £98 million, by 1931 the figures were down to 1,860 million yards valued at £43 million. Between 1931 and 1925 there were a million unemployed people in this country. The price of cloth fell: American cotton fell from 13s 19d to 5d per lb and heavy Cheshire fell from 6s 4d per yard to 2s 7d a yard.

This country had lost forever the monopoly of the manufactured cotton goods, the holding falling to only a quarter of the worlds trade. The Association embarked on a policy of establishing works abroad.

A calico printing works was bought on the Whangpoo river near Shanghai; then a venture in Egypt selling to retailers along the Upper and Lower Nile; followed one in Central India and one at the Mettur Dam, 240 miles south of Madras; a factory in Java; and following Pearl Harbour a modern air-conditioned mill was set up and running in 8 weeks in Australia. By 1950 the Australian Cotton Twill Textile Industries Ltd was the 3rd largest employer in South Australia. The Good Hope Textile Corporation was set up in South Africa. Agents were appointed in almost every country in the world.

Branch Offices were in London, Glasgow, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Johannesburg, Capetown, Durban, Rhodesia. Showrooms were opened in Buenos Aires, Bombay, Nairobi, Singapore, and Rangoon and all displayed material designed in Manchester.

In 1912 the Head Office at St James's Buildings was completed and occupied. The building covers an area of 57,000 square feet, has a front elevation of 166 feet and is 306 feet wide. The floor area covers 450,000 square feet. In 1949 there were over a million phone calls from all over the world plugged into the switchboard on the top floor. Training and Welfare provided by the CPA for its employees. Intensive 3 month courses for ex-servicemen joining from university. Apprenticship courses to train crafstmen. Welfare Canteens at every works, clubs and sports grounds, lectures, concerts, dramatic shows. In 1949 one weeks annual paid holiday and six days local holiday with pay.

A Staff Pension Fund was established in 1944. A retirment grant for employees not eligible for the staff pension scheme. Presentations were made to all who completed 50 years service with the Association. 50 Years Service 1949 saw the 50th Golden Jubilee of the CPA and those still in employ at Buckton Vale Works and who had completed 50 or more years service were........ J Andrew L Bagshaw T Brennand J Brindle P Corker J Grindrick W Heap H Kilshaw H Langley J Mellor W Norris D Redfearn W Roberts J Smith F Thorneley F Thorp E Winterbottom R Wright

The Head Office of the Association was first established at 2 Charlotte Street, Manchester. These premises proved to be inadequate and it was re-established at 56 Mosley Street, Manchester where the CPA monogram can still be seen on the keystone over the entrance to the building. During the first years the idea of a house mark was conceived and the motiff of a star was adopted. The star became the trade mark of the CPA.

The main entrance hall in St James's Buildings with the 1914-1918 War Memorial in the background. 1,744 men and 145 women joined the Forces from the Association during the War Years. The CPA had a scheme "Training Within Industry" to retrain the returning workers and to train those who were joining the industry for the first time.

During World War Two 7 million yards of denim, 230 million badges, 50 million fabric discs for gas masks, 12 million yards of camouflage material and 3.5 million yards of fabric for jackets and haversacks was produced by the CPA. Output was so large that the demands of the army were easily met.

Chairmen 1899 to 1900 F F Grafton 1900 to 1901 J H Garside 1901 to 1908 R P Hewit 1908 to 1947 Lenox B Lee (40 years) 1947 to 1964 Roger M Lee (40 years service) he had worked for the Association since 1924

Walter Knight and The Traction Engine

At first the finished goods produced in Carrbrook had to be taken to Manchester by horse and cart. Then in 1877 the first traction engine arrived. The old Carrbrook traction engine was famous on the roads. It delivered dyed and printed finished fabrics to the CPA Pin Mill branch at Ardwick. The engine pulled 2 large trailers fully loaded with goods and made a tremendous noise as it traversed the roads. It left Carrbrook works about 4.30 am each day and would awake anyone sleeping as their doors and windows rattled as it passed by. Sometimes ceilings fell in and fixtures loosened. Walter Knight Senior drove the engine for 37 years. His assistant was Tommy Horner, and stoker Tommy McGloughlin was in charge at the rear. Walter travelled sitting on a plank, upholstered in sacking and protruding about a yard from the rear trailer. His legs were always encased up to the knee in layer of sacking. In fog he would walk in front of the engine swinging a lamp. On the outward journey at the bottom of the steep Ditchcroft incline in Millbrook , Tommy would disconnect one trailer and the engine would take the other to the top, leaving it, returning for the bottom one. On one occassion a trailer careered backwards down the hill and overturned, discarding its load of parcels on the footpath at Wright Hyde's shop.

Census Returns 1901
Address: Beaconsfield Terrace							Place Born
Knight	Walter	Head	Male	Age	50	Traction Engine Driver	Sittingbourne
Knight	Margaret	Wife	Female	Age	46		Chorley
Knight	Elizabeth	Daughter	Female	Age	21	Cloth Measurer	Stalybridge
Knight	Walter	Son	Male	Age	20	Clerk Commercial	Stalybridge
Knight	Rose	Daughter	Female	Age	17	Cloth Measurer	Stalybridge
Knight	Isabel	Daughter	Female	Age	16	Cloth Measurer	Stalybridge
Knight	Delsey	Daughter	Female	Age	15	Roller Engraver	Stalybridge
Knight	Ephrain	Son	Male	Age	10		Stalybridge
Knight	Margaret	Daughter	Female	Age	5		Stalybridge