Billy Gaunt
In the corridor leading to the Archive, there is a wonderful painting by Mel Davies inspired by the life and time of W C Gaunt or Billy Gaunt as he […]
Volunteers and the Dye Garden
At the back of the Archive, we have a dye garden with dye plants that would have been used in the Mill during the time Edwin Woodhouse was the mill […]
W C Gaunt
In 1917 William C Gaunt, the wool tycoon bought Sunny Bank Mills from James Ives & Company as part of a rapid expansion during the First World War. He now owned […]
Clocking on
Time cards are not a new invention – they’ve been around for hundreds of years, helping managers to track employee working hours and pay them the relevant amount of money. […]
Mechanics and pressure gauges
Although the Mill has not been able to keep the large machinery that was used in the manufacture of the cloth we have got a few of the vital elements […]
Edwin Woodhouse
Why was the cloth at Sunny Bank Mills called Edwin Woodhouse? Image from the Archive collection Edwin Woodhouse Lord Mayor of Leeds. Edwin Woodhouse was a Halifax man who had […]
Thobes
In the textile industry, you have to adapt and change to survive. Sunny Bank Mills was no exception. Although the Mills main cloth production was fine worsted suiting in the […]
Sustainability
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Sustainability was always part of West Yorkshires textile heritage and Sunny Bank Mills is no exception. In business, you never know what is around the corner and […]
Stocking Machine
The stocking machine was invented in 1589 producing a stocking stitch. Knitted fabrics are constructed by the interlocking of a series of loops made from one or more yarns, with […]