Courtaulds Greenfield
Courtaulds was a United Kingdom-based manufacturer of fabric, clothing, artificial fibres, and chemicals. The company was founded by George Courtauld and his cousin Peter Taylor (1790–1850) in 1794 as a silk, crepe and textile business and became the world's leading man-made fibre production company before being broken up in 1990 into Courtaulds plc and Courtaulds Textiles Ltd.
A subsidiary of a German company, the British Glanzstoff Manufacturing Company started an artificial silk factory in Flint in 1907. During World War I the factory closed down but was taken over by Courtaulds in 1917. In 1913, the company had started making the synthetic fibre viscose rayon, made from cellulose derived from imported wood pulp or cotton waste. In 1919 Courtaulds bought the old Muspratt Alkali factory in Flint from United Alkali Co Ltd and called it Castle Works, where, after conversion they started production in 1922 of manufactured viscose rayon yarn. Courtaulds also in December 1927 bought the Holywell Textile Mill in Flint which they called Deeside Mill and after reconstruction and alterations was used for yarn processing. At its height Courtaulds employed over 10,000 people at four sites. At Greenfield, some 5 miles (8.0 km) further down the Dee estuary, two additional large rayon production facilities existed from 1936 onwards, named Number 1 and Number 2. These mills employed over 3,000 people. Textile production declined from 1950, and Aber works shut initially in 1957, opened for rayon in 1966, and was pulled down in 1984. Castle works closed in 1977 and Deeside Mill in 1989. The number 1 facility at Greenfield was mothballed in 1978, and the entire site was decommissioned in the mid 1980s. Since many people were employed at Courtaulds, the overall collection is very large, it has therefore been split into three collections for ease of navigation. For information about Unit 2 plant, please visit the Courtaulds Greenfield No.2 Unit Collection, similarly, for items regarding employees and social events, please visit Courtaulds Greenfield employees and social events collection.
