Category: Trade: Silk Factory

Extract from The Changing Face Of Warminster by Wilfred Middlebrook, published in 1971:

The Pound Street Factory has been in existence for many years, being built by the silk manufacturing firm of Messrs. Jupe of Mere in 1874. At this time the firm ran the Crockerton Silk Mills (demolished in 1919) and the Warminster factory was started on the 15th January 1874 with seventy hands from Crockerton. By 1883 there were over a hundred and fifty hands and two thousand ‘swifts’ – revolving frames on which the silk yarn from Mere was sorted out and cleaned ready for use at Crockerton. The firm also bought and built houses in Pound Street for their workers.

Charles Jupe of Mere, once a prosperous silk manufacturer with factories at Mere, Crockerton, Warminster and Malmesbury, was also a staunch supporter of the Nonconformist cause, and built many churches and manses including the manse at Horningsham and the Congregational Church at Crockerton. He died in 1883, and by this time there had been a serious decline in the silk industry for three or four years. In 1900 a commemoration service was held at Mere Congregational Church, when a bronze tablet in honour of Mr. and Mrs. Jupe was unveiled by Mr. William Frank Morgan of Warminster.