Platt Saco Lowell

DDPSL 1 Platt Brothers & Company Ltd. of Oldham.

DDPSL 2 Dobson & Barlow Ltd. of Bolton.

DDPSL 3 Howard & Bullough Ltd. of Accrington.

DDPSL 4 Asa Lees & Co. of Oldham.

DDPSL 5 Tweedales & Smalley Ltd. of Castleton.

DDPSL 6 Taylor Wordsworth & Co. Ltd. of Leeds.

DDPSL 7 Taylor Lang & Co. Ltd. of Staleybridge.

DDPSL 8 Prince-Smith and Stells & Co. Ltd. of Keighley.

DDPSL 9 Joseph Hibbert & Co. Ltd. of Darwen.

DDPSL 10 Brooks & Doxey Ltd. of Manchester.

DDPSL 11 Moston Colliery.

DDPSL 12 Jubilee Colliery.

DDPSL 13 Textile Machinery Makers of Helmshore.

DDPSL 14 Platt International.

DDPSL 15 Draft History of Company compiled by W.W. Kempe.

DDPSL 16 J. Stone & Co. Ltd.

DDPSL 17 Newring Mill Co. Ltd.

DDPSL 18 Associated companies technical & sales literature.

Access arrangements

Records over 40 years old are open. Platt Saco Lowell and receivers Ernst & Whinney have agreed that academic researchers (ie higher degree) can have access to records less than 40 years old, at the discretion of the County Archivist. All such requests to be made in writing.

Memo 3 Dec 1986

However, records received from Accrington Library in 2001 (acc 8968) are all open.

Deposited by Messrs. Platt-Saco-Lowell, textile machinery manufacturers of Helmshore, Accrington, Bolton and Oldham, Jul.1977-Sep.1978. And Oct-Dec 1978

Introduction

In 1770 Henry Platt, a blacksmith was building carding machinery at Dobcross. Henry junior his grandson was born in 1793, and in 1815 he moved to Upper mill, and found a similar business to his grandfather's. He moved five years later to Oldham and re-established the business at Huddersfield Rd.

In 1822 Henry Platt and Elijah Hibbert formed Hibbert & Platt, and transferred the business to Hartford works, they became Hibbert Platt & Sons when Henry's sons, Joseph and John joined the firm.

Henry Platt died in 1842 and Elijah Hibbert died in 1854, his portion of the shares being acquired by the Platt family, thus changing the name to Platt Bros & Co. Twelve years later they became a limited liability company.

John Platt, the politician, died in Paris of typhoid in 1872 while on business; Platt Bros. at that time employed 7,000 men.

By 1929 the works covered 65 acres and employed 12,000 people in the assembly plant, spindle works, foundry, saw mills, offices, and coal mines. Textile machinery of all types was being manufactured, from cotton gins to axminster carpet looms.

In 1931 a controlling interest in Textile Machinery Makers Ltd., was acquired, and the name was changed to Platt Bros. (Holdings) Ltd., which now directed and managed Platt Bros., Howard & Bullough Ltd., Dobson & Barlow Ltd., Asa Lees & Co. Ltd., John Hetherington & Sons Ltd., Taylor Wordsworth & Co. Ltd., and Joseph Hibbert & Co. Ltd.

In 1946, Sir Kenneth Preston, who had been Chairman of J. Stone Ltd., was appointed Chairman of Platt Bros (Holdings) Ltd., and at the same time Platt Bros (sales) was created to control production and marketing.

In 1970 Platt International Ltd., was formed from the companies which constituted the textile division of Stone-Platt industries.

The latest of the major changes came in 1973 when Platt International acquired the Saco-Lowell corporation. Saco-Lowell, an American company, had its beginnings in 1811, when the Saco Iron works was opened at Saco, Maine. Two years later, F.C. Lowell opened a company in Boston which manufactured textile machinery.

The two companies merged in 1912 to become Saco-Lowell, and grew in prosperity until 1960 when the Maremont Corporation acquired a majority share; then came the Platt International take-over, the company being re-named Platt-Saco-Lowell in 1975.

The records of the organisation have been arranged in the order in which they were created: that is, by main constituent companies.

Documents distinguished by an asterisk were at one time housed in the Platt's Museum, Middle Mill, Helmshore.