Just one of the entrances to the mill still survives today and is on Henry Lee St named after one of the owners

Barrier St or Shed Lane looking towards Tootals with St Helens Rd on the bridge

1947 May 22nd For 82 years Miss Alice Morris has lived in the same house, Heathfield Cottage, Cow Lane, off St Helens Rd and for 47 of those years she has lived there alone. This must surely constitute a record for Bolton.
Her father was a collier employed by the Earl of Ellesmere, and Miss Morris was the first child to be born in the cottage, one of several that housed the colliery employees. The others have since been pulled down. 'When I was 10', she says 'I started work at Sunnyside Mills, part-time, and was paid 2s 6d a week. We had to get up at 5.30am and be at the mill by 6am, and we did not get home again until 6pm. In due course I became a weaver, and in those days you were making good money if you earned 18s or 20s a week. When I was 28 years of age I had to leave the mill to look after my parents, but I went out washing and cleaning until I was 80.'

 

Updated December 12, 2008 11:14 PM

Henry Lee bought an existing small weaving shed and engine house in 1862, a street named after him still exists today.

Tootal Broadhurst and Lee Co also known as Sunnyside Mills built 1862 with additions 1872. The company founded in Manchester in 1799 by Robert Gardner, a textile merchant. The Tootal family involvement began in 1842.

Sunnyside Mills, Bolton and Newton Heath Mills, Manchester, were acquired in the 1860s. April 28th 1867 a fire at Sunnyside Mill caused £10.00 damage,

1874 September 18th
THE new premises erected as an addition to Messrs Tootal Broadhurst, Lee and Co's, Sunnyside Mills, Daubhill, were opened on Thursday, the auspicious event being celebrated by a trip of the employees to Belle Vue, the whole expense of which was borne by the firm. The mills are now said to be the most complete and extensive in Lancashire, together will 100 dwellings forming part of the property.

Above shows the railway running along the front of TBL but in 1885 the railway was routed along the rear of the premises. After several name changes, the firm became Tootal Broadhurst Lee Co. Ltd in 1888.

In 1918 a research department was established, which carried out early work on creating crease resistant fabric. The company was notable for its early use of brand names and was a leader in the field of selling direct to retailers. By 1939 the firm had spinning, weaving and yarn dyeing factories in Bolton and factories in Newton Heath, Manchester, weaving silk and wool and producing handkerchiefs and ties. There were branches in Belfast, Birmingham, Leeds, London and Glasgow and overseas in Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, and New Zealand. The company had agencies throughout the world. Subsidiaries activities included dress manufacture, bleaching, dyeing and crease resistant finishing. New factories were opened in St. Helens, in 1947, and in Devonport, Tasmania, in 1952.

The company became a subsidiary of the holding company Tootal Ltd., which joined English Sewing Cotton Co. Ltd. in 1963. This in turn merged with the Calico Printers Association in 1968, becoming English Calico Ltd. This became Tootal Ltd. in 1973, In 1980 the mill closed and was subsequently demolished except of a part which was annexed to Rumworth Mill (Lantor Ltd).