Geograph - photograph every grid square

Philanthropic Quakers John and Joseph Cash constructed a cottage factory in Kingfield in 1856-7 as a way of giving individual weavers access to mechanisation of looms but without having to be employed in a factory. One hundred three storey houses around a square were planned with the top floor being separate workshops connected by steam-driven shafts. The weavers would live in the two storeys below their workshop and pay for rent and power. In the end only 48 houses were built on 2 sides of a square.

The drawback with this approach was that when there was insufficient work for all weavers, as was the case when the trade collapsed in 1860, the steam still had to be raised to drive the machinery for those weavers who had work and those who didn't have work were unable and/or unwilling to pay. In the end, the divisions between the workshops were removed and the top floor became a factory with the entrances from the cottages below closed off and workers entering through the main gates as employees rather than semi-independent weavers.

Later, further factory buildings were added within the square and Cash's continued on site for many years producing decorated ribbons, woven pictures and name tapes. Some buildings were lost during WWII, leaving 37 cottages. Cash's factory moved from the site in 1984 and the houses were taken over and converted by a housing association.

Grade II listed as groups

Created: Sun, 13 May 2012, Updated: Sun, 14 Jul 2013