Ermen & Roby, Pendlebury & Patricroft

Ermen and Roby were another one of the major players to join the English Sewing Cotton Company. They represented the great "Cottonopolis", the location of their two mills being Pendlebury and Patricroft, Greater Manchester. These two place names are now given as being part of either Eccles or Salford, being located to the west of Manchester city centre. The mills were therefore worked by the people that L.S. Lowry painted and that Walter Greenwood wrote about in "Love on the Dole". In that context, you can perhaps paint a visual picture of how it all looked back in the early days of the ESCC. It's all different now. I have checked out the streets where these mills were located on Google Streetview - one has been replaced by a 1980s housing estate and the other by one of those streets that is made up of a mish mash of light industrial buildings.

Ermen & Roby's roots went right back to 1837. Peter Ermen was born in Holland and developed a cotton spinning partnership with his brothers and Frederick Engels (father of the famous philosopher). One of Peter's brothers was called Godfrey and he established the Bridgewater Mill at Pendlebury in 1860 for spinning and doubling sewing cotton. In 1871, the Nassau Mill at Patricroft was established, in order to "finish" the yarn that was being produced at Bridgewater. This second mill was also conveniently close to both the Manchester Ship and Bridgewater Canals. 

In 1861, Peter Ermen's daughter married H.J Roby. Although he was foremost a scholar and would eventually become MP for Eccles, he was taken into the cotton spinning partnership. As the family grew, it was decided to change the company name to Ermen & Roby in 1875. By the 1890s, there were 6 partners in the company - 4 Ermens and 2 Robys. They employed 1,200 people across their 2 sites. Because they were such a major company, the Ermen & Roby name was retained on products after they had become part of the ESCC. According to the 1947 publication marking 50 years of the ESCC, Bridgewater and Nassau Mills spun bales of raw cotton into single yarn, which was sent out to other ESCC mills to make the products that the combine was famous for - perhaps including Sylko. 

As an aside, when Godfrey Ermen died in 1900, he left provision in his will for long standing Ermen & Roby employees. All those that had worked for the company for 25 years or more received a share of the unknown sum that had been set aside. Over 200 people benefitted from the bequest. I'd love to know how much they got, and if it was enough to make a little difference to their lives. Or did it all end up in pub landlord's pockets and pawnbrokers?

Bridgewater Mill was located on Worsley Street/Carlisle Street in Pendlebury. The mill was closed in 1980 and demolished. Nassau Mill was located on Cawdor Street/Vine Street  in Patricroft. The mill closed in 1971 and for a few years was used as a retail park. It was then demolished in 1979 to make way for a realignment of Vine Street. Captures of Google Street Views are below.

                   
                    Location of Nassau Mill
Location of Bridgewater Mill

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