1
The Old Silk Mill, Brook Street
The silk mill started in 1823 and employed up to 600 people. It worked until 1898. It is now business units.
http://www.theoldsilkmilltring.co.uk/info.html
Originally 5 storeys, reduced to 3 early 20C. The extensions in front are later additions.
Listing https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1338863
Image: © Des Blenkinsopp
Taken: 23 Sep 2016
0.06 miles
2
Silk Mill Business Park
It would be easy to imagine that textile mills (possibly the inspiration for Blake's 'dark satanic mills') were exclusively a phenomenon of the industrial revolution in the Pennine towns of northern England. This mill, however, was established in a rural home counties town, now very much a part of the London commuter belt.
The mill was built in 1824/5 by William Kay as a 'throwing mill' where skeins of silk were cleaned, spun and twisted for strength. The thread was woven into fabric elsewhere. Originally powered by a water wheel, a steam engine was added later. In 1840 the mill employed more children than adults, most of them drawn from the London workhouses. It eventually closed in 1898 after which the top two storeys and the chimneys were removed. The building has had a variety of uses since and is now a business park.
Gerald Massey, an acclaimed poet who worked here as a child, penned these lines about the mill:
"Come, little Children," the Mill-bell rings,
and drowsily they run,
Little old Men and Women, and human
worms who have spun
The life of Infancy into silk; and fed, Child,
Mother, and Wife,
The factory's smoke of torment, with the
fuel of human life.
Image: © Stephen McKay
Taken: 22 Apr 2021
0.07 miles
3
Early Morning, Brook Street, Tring
Image: © Gerald Massey
Taken: 1 Dec 2009
0.07 miles
4
Tring Fire Station from the Market Square
In the foreground is the site of Tring Market (stalls on Friday, Farmer's market, alternate Saturdays). The green buildings are part of Tring Market Auctions.
The main fire station building, which includes a garage for one engine, is behind the ice cream van, and beyond it is a modern housing estate, Plaiters Close.
On the skyline, behind the tower, one can just see the roofs of house on the Silk Mill Estate.
The towering fire ladder was a demonstration on "Open Day".
Image: © Chris Reynolds
Taken: 6 Jul 2013
0.09 miles
5
Tring Fire Station on Open Day
This show the station as it faces onto Brook Street.
There is an "Open Day" sign and the local fire engine has been run forward from the garage so the public can see it.
Image: © Chris Reynolds
Taken: 6 Jul 2013
0.09 miles
6
Look - I can put a fire out
This fair-ground type game for the younger children was erected on the lawn at the front of Tring Fire Station on the 2015 Open Day. Obviously with the smallest, as here, a fireman helped steady the nozzle to ensure the water went in the right direction.
This year there were a number of flags along Brook Street, looking for more local people to become firemen.
Image: © Chris Reynolds
Taken: 22 Aug 2015
0.09 miles
7
Dramatic sky over Tring
This rather threatening looking sky was glowering over Tring. The tower which can be seen in silhouette belongs to
Image
Image: © Rob Farrow
Taken: 7 Oct 2008
0.09 miles
8
Tring fire station
Tring fire station, Brook Street, Tring, Hertfordshire
Image: © Kevin Hale
Taken: 18 Jun 2007
0.09 miles
9
Afternoon, Brook Street, Tring
Image: © Gerald Massey
Taken: 6 Dec 2009
0.09 miles
10
Tring - Full moon over the fire station
The metal tower bottom right belongs to Tring's fire station and is a replacement for the one seen in Gerald's 2009 photo
Image]
A full moon is seen hanging in the sky above it. For a zoomed view of the celestial object, see
Image]
Image: © Rob Farrow
Taken: 7 Feb 2023
0.09 miles