A bleachfield or bleaching green was an open area used for spreading cloth on the ground to be purified and whitened by the action of the sunlight . Bleaching fields were usually found in and around mill towns in Great Britain and were an integral part of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution .
5-515: Lever Bank Bleach Works was a Bleach Works at Ladyshore, near Little Lever , Bolton . The works was owned by Thomas Ridgway & Sons. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair would appear to be a direct descendant of this family. The works was located between the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal to the north, and the River Irwell to the south, in the area known as Ladyshore in
10-433: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This industry -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bleachfield When cloth-making was still a home-based occupation, the bleachfields could be found on Scottish crofts and English farm fields . Just as wool needed fulling and flax needed retting , so did the semi-finished fabrics need space and time outdoors to bleach. In
15-702: The Irwell Valley . Accessed from Ladyshore Bridge, over the canal, the cobbled pathway is still very much evident. Stanchions across the river still stand although the bridge/pipework they supported no longer exists. A weir was built on the nearby River Irwell and water diverted through a small channel into a reservoir. High quality stone walls are still evident along the banks of the river. The weir collapsed in June 2012. 53°33′13″N 2°21′39″W / 53.553651°N 2.360789°W / 53.553651; -2.360789 This Greater Manchester location article
20-635: The 18th century there were many linen bleachfields in Scotland, particularly in Perthshire , Renfrewshire in the Scottish Lowlands , and the outskirts of Glasgow . By the 1760s, linen manufacture became a major industry in Scotland, second only to agriculture. For instance, in 1782 alone, Perthshire produced 1,700,000 yards (1,600,000 m) of linen, worth £81,000 (£12,577,000 as of 2024). Bleachfields were also common in northern England ; for instance,
25-444: The name of the town of Whitefield , on the outskirts of Manchester, is thought to derive from the medieval bleachfields used by Flemish settlers. Bleachfields became redundant after Charles Tennant developed a bleaching powder based on chlorine , which permitted year-round processing of fabric indoors, but many of the factories continued to be called bleachfields. A bleachfield is similar to, but should not be confused with,
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