Castle Cary Linen and Hemp Industry: Higher Flax Mills

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CASTLE CARY LINEN AND HEMP INDUSTRY: HIGHER FLAX MILLS

Thomas Salisbury Donne, son of Charles, took over the flax business at Higher Mill which he owned by 1846, having probably purchased it from John Watts who in 1840 offered for sale two water- powered flax spinning factories previously flour mills.1 Donne built a new water wheel in 1844. He originally described himself as a girth and web manufacturer but by 1850, when he had been joined by his sons, as a flax and tow spinner and shoe thread and twine manufacturer.2

Thomas Salisbury Donne (d. 1862) and his sons Thomas and Henry were linen manufacturers in 1861.

They had a resident factory overlooker at Higher Mills whose sons were employed as engine driver and engineer.3 There were c. 40 flax workers in 1861 but only 22 in 1871 and 56 twine workers, as

Donnes ceased weaving to concentrate on spinning. In 1871 Thomas Salisbury Donne the younger (d.

1890) said he employed 152 hands.4 He installed steam engines, in use until the 1960s, and built the largest of the three-storey buildings on the Higher Mill site, 11 bays long, in 1870.5 He was probably responsible for the warehouses built at various dates in the later 19th century and an octagonal chimney, since demolished. All the buildings are of local stone with brick dressings under Roman tile roofs and have floors supported by cast iron columns accessed by timber-cased stairs.6 Two ponds supplied water for the boilers but one was filled in c. 1970.

1 SRO, D/P/cas 4/3/1; Bragg, Dir. Som. (1840); Castle Cary Visitor April 1905. 2 Grafton, Notes on Castle Cary, 21; Pigott & Co. Dir. Som. (1842); Hunt, Dir. Som. (1850). 3 Before rebuilding in 1870 the main block had a house attached to its southern end: SRO, tithe award. 4 TNA, RG 9/1646; RG 10/2422. In 1871 there were unspecified factory hands. 5 Datestone; McGarvie, Castle Cary, 40. 6 EH, Higher Flax Mills, passim.

Mary Siraut Page 1 Somerset Reference The younger Thomas’s sons, William Stephens Donne (d. 1883) and John Stephens Donne (d. 1908), had taken over by 1881. In 1891 there were 19 flax workers and 51 twine workers in the parish, falling to 12 flax and 37 twine workers by 1901.7 By 1885 substantial ropewalks had been constructed at

Higher Mills both sides of the main 1870 block and by 1896 the company had new warehouses.8

By the late 19th century Donnes bought in ready processed flax and hemp and the substantial increase in warehousing with their additional designation as merchants implies they were trading in materials as well as utilising them in their mill. In the 1890s Thomas S. Donne and Sons were flax and tow spinners, twine manufacturers, hemp and flax merchants, and manufacturers of hair seating warps, shoe threads, seaming and roping twines, sash lines, box cords, and diaper webs.9 In 1926 they became a limited company.10 Most of their early 20th-century business was the production of thread, twine, rope, and materials for upholstery and bedding. An unusual item made in the 1930s was the Somerset chair woven from flax cording laid over a basketwork frame.11

During the Second World War, despite losing part of the site to a government food store, they produced webbing for gas masks, camouflage nets, twines, ropes, and cordage. The factory was bombed unsuccessfully.12 One ropewalk was converted into a weaving shed for upholstery webbing and in 1948 a twine polishing machine was introduced.13 The company had c. 80 employees in 1947,14

7 TNA, RG 11/2395; RG 12/1901; RG 13/2303; Castle Cary Visitor Aug. 1908; McGarvie, Castle Cary, 26; Living History Group, Memories of Castle Cary and Ansford (1998), 31—2. 8 O.S. Map 1:10650, Som. LXV. NW (1885 edn); SRO, D/P/cas 13/1/21; D/R/winc 14/2/14. 9 McGarvie, Castle Cary, 16. 10 Ibid. 40. 11 EH, Higher Flax Mills, 10. 12 Living History Group, Memories, 65—6. 13 Living History Group, Time to Reflect, 65—6. 14 SRO, A/AGH 1/63.

Mary Siraut Page 2 Somerset Reference their 150th year,15 but used only part of their site and in 1956 rented out a two-storey building to

Boyd’s and the 1870 three-storey mill to Avalon Leatherboard. Later other parts of the site were let to small businesses, which in 2001 included a small printing firm. New machinery and electric power were installed from the 1950s but demand for Donne’s products fell. They amalgamated with Boyd’s c. 1977 but continued to use part of the site until 1983 as T.S. Donne and Sons to manufacture webbing, two new looms having been acquired in 1980 to replace 20 old ones, and garden netting.

Webbing and twine production ceased in the 1980s but manufacturing of some products continued under the name of the Don Cord Company until 1992 when the machinery was scrapped.16

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15 Said to have started in Ansford in 1797. 16 SRO, D/PC/cas 7/2/1; ibid. A/AGH 1/63; Living History Group, Time to Reflect, 64—7.

Mary Siraut Page 3 Somerset Reference