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Our speaker on this occasion was Mr. Rob Evans with a very entertaining talk, illustrated with slides, about the Chipping Norton company which was a major employer in the town for around two hundred years.
The beginning was with the arrival of a young Thomas Bliss in the town, probably on a mission to establish an enclave of the Gloucestershire family business, towards the end of the 18th Century. Why he stayed and started his own business is unclear, the romantic version saying that he fell in love and married the daughter of the Swann Inn landlord where he was staying. This is unlikely because the records of the time show his father-in-law as never having been in such an occupation.
Having married and settled he started a mill and in 1786 he bought a spring loom from the Earley's of Witney. He became a civic figure as an overseer of the poor among other functions.
His eldest son, William, took over the running of the business. A new mill was established and horse power was used to drive the machinery but there was still a need to use other plant on the Windrush and Swinbrook streams for heavy duty machine work. This period was fairly unsettled and when William retired his eldest son briefly took over the management.
It was Robert's brother William II who really placed the business into a position of power and prosperity after 1839. In 1839 turnover was c. £100.000 a year while in 1870 this was up to £250.000 with a weekly wage bill of £500. The success was partly because of producing a range of goods which sold well but mainly because they produced a tweed cloth which was extremely hard wearing. Their products won prizes at exhibitions around the country and abroad, including Paris and New York.
William was by the standards of the time a model employer. He provided good quality housing, decent wages and working conditions. So successful was he that Napoleon III awarded him the accolade of European Employer in 1867. He was Mayor of the town on four occasions and had the Baptist Church built.
In 1872 catastrophe struck when a boiler in the mill exploded killing three workers and destroying the building. A new one was built on the present site during which time work went on in another mill running on two shifts. Workers and their families not left without incomes and the firm stayed viable while the new building was completed. The new mill was built to the highest safety standards of the age with particular attention to fire.
The next ten years were difficult. The cost of rebuilding plus the increasing competition from abroad and cotton left the business struggling. In 1883 William II died and was succeeded by his son William III. The lower mill was auctioned off and over the next years other people became involved in the running of the company until the family finally moved away from the town and the firm.
The 20th Century saw a decline in the firm over a long period. The formation of a trades union branch led to a strike in 1913 which split the town. Although a large number of the workers joined the stoppage a significant number continued to work. The timing of the strike saw the workers without income during a very bitter winter and the strike eventually failed. For many years there was some division within the town. It was not until 1945 that a Union branch was established at the works again.
The end came in 1988 when the company decided to move its operations to Cornwall and an attempt by some workers to continue running the mill never materialised because use of the Bliss Tweed name was not permitted.
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