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Date: 1879 - 1900
(c.)
Description: The
firm were manufacturers of "sewing silks, braids, bindings,
trimmings etc", and were prize winners at the Great Exhibition
in 1851, and several later European exhibitions. This etching
of their premises in the late 1800s was used on their business
card.
The business was founded by John Brough, a silk
manufacturer in about 1812. After his early efforts, his sons,
Joshua, James and John took over the mantle. The brothers had
a factory built on Union Street in 1844 and later took on
partners, Joshua Nicholson and B.B. Nixon to became J. and J.
Brough, Nicholson & Co. in 1863. Soon after a warehouse
was built on Cross Street c1865, close to Hope Mill on
Fountain Street. In less than ten years this mill had been
acquired and extended to twice its original size. The
partnership was employing 630 workers in 1891. Following a
series of changes in the partnership due to deaths and
retirements, the firm became Brough, Nicholson & Hall in
1891. The partners soon embarked on a new scheme of
development involving the extension of the Cross Street
building, and the building of a new mill on Well Street (known
from 1900 as Royal York Mill). Around this time the firm also
took over the Cecily Mills in Cheadle. In 1968 many of the
firms' buildings were demolished, and in 1983 Brough,
Nicholson & Hall sold their only remaining premises, Cross
Street Mill, to Berisfords, the Congleton ribbon firm.
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