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Neckinger Mills (leather)

From London's Ghost Acres

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Operation

1805 to 1981


Location

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Located in

London


Produced

Morocco Leather, Tanned Hides, Dressed Leather=


Used Raw Materials

Goat and Kid Skins, Sheep and Lamb Skins, Salt, Sumac, Alum, Cochineal, Indigo, Logwood


|1805 |The date "{{{to_date}}}" was not understood.The date "{{{to_date}}}" was not understood. |Bevingtons and Sons Limited |-


|1805 |1981 |Leather and Skins Industry |-

Description

Neckinger Mills was a leather tannery owned by Bevington and Sons. The company took over the factory in 1805, replacing the paper mill that had been operating there. The area gets its name from the Neckinger River that, along with the tide-streams from the Thames, provided plenty of water needed for a tannery (Mulhallen 2010, 235). Neckinger Mills focused on “the preparation of thinner softer skins, especially for those which are tanned with sumach, or with alum, in place of bark, and also for oil-tanning; that is for morocco, roan, buck and doe, and other productions from deer, goat, and sheep skins by Sumach; and for lamb, kid, and other delicate skins by the latter processes” (Brayley 1850, volume 5 pg 31). By 1850, Neckinger Mills was tanning 470,000 skins a year - 250,000 by alum and 220,000 by sumac - using “18 tons of alum, 30 tons of salt, 60 loads of lime, and 70,000 eggs” (Brayley 31). The grounds of Neckinger Mills was full of lime-pit, tan-pits, and drying racks while the buildings had storerooms for finished leather, a dye-house for dying the morocco leather, rooms with hide-splitting machines and fulling-stocks, a basement for fermenting sheep skins to remove the wool, and lofts for drying skins (The Penny Magazine 1842, 209-216). Bevington and Sons worked out of Neckinger Mills until 1935, when they moved most of their operations over to Hawley Hill. The warehouses of Neckinger Mills were converted into apartments in the 1980s (British Listed Buildings).

https://books.google.ca/books?id=mbcHAAAAQAAJ&lpg=PA454&ots=QA59dFeliD&dq=Neckinger%20Mills%20leather&pg=PA455#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.ca/books?id=iPhQsrbDWcoC&lpg=PA235&pg=PA235#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.ca/books?id=RXdMAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA211&ots=RHEI2Ppr08&dq=Neckinger%20Mills%20leather&pg=PA209#v=onepage&q&f=false http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-508020-neckinger-mills-greater-london-authority#.VVJYfPlVhBc