Grandson’s insight into family dynasty

How the Moorside skyline used to look when Mellodew’s mills were in full production — the family also built St Thomas’s Church, in the foreground

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The history of a famous Oldham textile family has been launched by one of the last surviving descendants of the Mellodew dynasty.

William Mellodew Hartley is the grandson of one of the last directors of Thomas Mellodew and Co Ltd, who built the Moorside and Parkfield Mills.

The mills closed in 1956, but in their heyday they were world famous for producing velvets.

The family also built St Thomas’s Church at Moorside, famous for having a tower and a steeple, in 1872.

The new book, “An Oldham Velvet Dynasty”, charts the growth of the business from the 1840s, and the family difficulties along the way.

The Mellodew pattern books have been restored and are now at Oldham Local Studies and Archive, Union Street, Oldham, which also has the special tokens issued by the Mellodew family which were issued instead of pay, to be spent at the company’s shops in the 1840s.