25 Sinton's Mills, Tandragee By LORNA QUIN Iish a linen reason BEFORE exploring Sinton's Mill, Tandragee, it industry. One for this was to the woollen would be a pity not to look at the development protect industry in England, prevent and growth of the linen industry itself. Irish linen ing the export of woollen cloth from Ireland to is famous throughout the world and Ulster is England. Imported spinning wheels and looms were synonomous with this industry. Northern Ireland's bought as well as Dutch flax seed but with growth, industrial and economic, is inextricably regard to unifying and organising the production an entwined with the linen industry. It could be said of linen into industry, the project failed and that linen weaves its thread through the very Strafford lost ?30,000. fabric of our Ulster heritage. Another English statesman, Ormonde, and his As linen comes from the flax everyone knows, friend, Sir William Temple, brought workers from plant. The botanical name of this plant is Linum the Netherlands and formed colonies near Dublin. Usitatissimum. This annual is cultivated in plant In 1662 an Act was passed giving special pivileges o the wild in many parts world, growing Egypt to Protestant immigrants and in 1666 there were and some of It laxative and parts Asiat possesses special laws to protect the linen trade and prizes diuretic and in ancient times was properties were offered for good flax cultivation and and administered as a domestic gathered weaving. Again though, uniformity was hard to medicine. enforce and it remained a haphazard domestic The flax r o w s a plant g to height of 3?4 feet industry, a spin-off from agriculture. under cultivation and the stem branches grow However, a number of factors and coincidences more or less according to the degree it is crowded in the early years of the 18th century gelled to pro by other plants. The blue flowers, arranged in a vide great scope for the growth of the Irish linen are loose pinacle about 1" in diameter. The seed industry. "boll" contains ten seeds. These seeds are smooth The climate in Ireland was very suitable, mild and polished and when crushed produce an oil and wet. The small enclosed holdings in Ireland used in the paint industry. also fascilitated the growing of flax. At the same It is, however, the fibre of the plant which is of time cotton and wool manufacture was more at value. stem of greatest The the plant, when cut tractive in England from a financial point of view has a centre of this is a across, pith. Outside so there was no competition from England?only woody core, then the inner bark which contains demand. In the early 1700s, France and Belgium long and very tough fibres. All is surrounded by were cut off by wars and this also favoured the a skin. Irish linen industry. There was a steady stream of It was a common practice for flax to be hand Dutch merchants who travelled to Ireland for pulled. Nowadays it is machine pulled. The flax cloth which they brought back to Holland to is rotted in heat controlled tanks to remove the bleach. This intercourse with the Dutch merchants fibre from the plant. From the tanks the flax is brought Dutch wheels and updated knowledge dried and removed for scutching. Here blades, which the Irish picked up. There was also a good revolving at speed, beat on the plant to remove river system in Ireland which allowed bleach the wood and leave the fibre only. greens to flourish. It suited the Irish farmer well From the scutch mill, the scutched flax is to augment his living with some spinning and despatched to the spinning mill. The spinning of weaving. flax dates back to Old Testament early times During the 1600s and 1700s Scottish settlers when women flax a spun into yarn with spindle came especially to Antrim and Down. These were and distaff. When Pharoah wanted to honour hardworking people with some capital and handi Joseph "he took his ring from off his hand, and craft knowledge and they "entered into the linen put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in fine trade with a spirit and manufactured cloth them linen". The spindle and distaff spread over most selves". The nickname for these Scottish settlers of the world but some tribes never made the dis was Blackmouths. covery, continuing to twist fibres between their Just before 1700 and for about 20 years after, and At discoveries of lake palms thighs. dwellings some Hugenots arrived in Ireland, their total being in Switzerland, spindles were found at least 3,000 about 500 families. The leader of the first contin years old. gent was Louis Crommelin, a man skilled in linen manufacture. The King invited him to form a THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE Society in 1698 for carrying out the linen trade. IRISH LINEN INDUSTRY He was given ?10,000 for machinery and raw Linen was made in Ireland early in the 13th material, along with ?300 per year as a salary and century. In the reign of Charles I, his Lieutenant was given money also for his three chosen assist in Ireland, the Earl of Strafford, decided to estab ants and a minister to serve the Hugenots. This 26_Poyntzpass and District Local History Society ?-?. -nil^'g^^y^Ti ^.miniil^^jn An aerial view of Sinton's Mill, Tandragee. contract was made by William III in 1700 and an immediate existence was of prime necessity. It renewed by Queen Anne. The Hugenots had the was not worthwhile for the tenant to improve his most efficient looms, could teach fine spinning and land. There was a better tenant system in Ulster the best methods of flax culture. The vast majority with leases of 30?50 years being common. Also, of the Hugenots settled in Ulster where they were the landlords in the North were much better and at home in puritanical surroundings and there is were often interested in the linen trade. Men, like no doubt that under their influence both the Conway (Lisburn), Brownlow (Lurgan) and Lord volume and quality of cloth produced increased. Hillsborough "liberally patronised the linen A London merchant of the time, Huey, said: trade". So, Ulster became the home of Irish linen. "Irish linen is much better quality than it has It was still at the domestic stage, the indus been". However, the Hugenots were not unre trialisation of the industry did not take place until servedly generous with their knowledge! They the 19th century and the dawning of the industrial said that an Irish man must serve 5 years as an revolution. apnrentice and two years as a before journeyman The earliest application of water power to flax able to "set as a weaver. Foreign being up" spinning in N. Ireland took place in 180S. Samuel Protestants were to be exempt from this! Crookshanks, near Crossgar was granted ?78 by the Linen Board to purchase 103 spindles and a waterwheel. WHY WAS THE LINEN INDUSTRY In 1806 the Nicholsons of Bessbrook used the CONFINED TO ULSTER? Bessbrook river in the same way. However, hand was labour and industrialised Like all good Irish problems it has its roots in spinning very cheap was not successful until in 1825, a James religion! spinning of Preston invented the of Wet Obviously the Hugenots and Scots who influ Kay process Spin This allowed the of much finer enced the industry settled in Ulster. ning* spinning yarns and the whole nature of the local The industry in the rest of Ireland in industry operated was fits and starts but was never successful. The Land altered. Tenure in the rest of Ireland forbade Catholics to The adhesive in the fibre was loosened by 5?6 hold land for any considerable time and many hours in the water so short fibres could be drawn leases were for just a year. The tenant had no out and a much finer yarn produced. The next security and managed his land in such a way that development was that it was discovered that if the Poyntzpass and District Local History Society_27 water was hot, the whole process would be further In 1905 it was made a Limited Company and enhanced?the short fibres would be loosened and the name was changed to Thomas Sinton Ltd. was Thomas the gummy solution would not reharden. This In 1920 it received its present title of a success and the monopoly of the hand spinner Sinton & Co, Ltd. The Sinton family are still had come to an end. However, the Irish Linen running the mill to-day with Mr. Maynard and Board were too late to take advantage of this and Mr. Jim Sinton the present owners. It is very a it was left to independent industrialists to use this much family firm. new technique. From 1825 the building of small water HACKLING wet mills in districts powered spinning country The spinning process is a complicated one. The was soon followed by the construction of large scutched flax has first to be 'hackled'. mills steam Hand city using engine technology. In hackling the flax is combed by rotating was and also the of spinning swept away hopes leather sheets which have pins, starting off coarse an infant cotton in Ireland was dashed. industry and ending up fine?up to 50 pins per inch. This From 1830 flax mills came to sixty-five spinning combing straightens the fibre and removes broken dominate the linen to an ex industry increasing fibre etc., which drop into boxes below the tent.