The House of Brocklehurst - 1947

Card mount:
cm deep by cm wide

silk:
7.6cm high by 10.3cm wide

by Lewis Cowen:
HOUSE OF BROCKLEHURST was produced as a calendar, and copies were distributed free of charge to customers and employees. From 1951 a potted history (legend) accompanied the pictures, on the reverse or on the fly-leaf, but in this particular case there was none, and a little of the background may be of interest.

In 1745, what is now called 'The House of Brocklehurst' was almost certainly the original office building of the Hurdsfield Mills. The cottage-like premises stood directly on the pavement, and were owned by ACTON & STREET, who were button makers. This was the firm in which JOHN BROCKLEHURST became a partner in 1745. Over the ensuing years, he and his successors appear to have bought out the other partners until they eventually owned the firm.

Other comments:
Lewis Cowen notes above that this silk picture was issued as a calendar. Below is an image of just such a calendar.

The card mount is a brown colour, and it is these coloured mounts which define the original issue of this silk picture. Several years later BWA realised their pictures were being bought as collectors items, and they seem to have reissued all the early ones mounted in a white card mount (as the main image above). The actual silk though is known in various shades of colour (compare for instance the green colour of the calendar to the white card mounted silk above), implying there were several weavings, so it is uncertain whether these white reissued pictures came from the original 1947 weaving.

image of this silk as a calendar