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On a main road, with good parking (metered, but you won't be there long enough!). Alternative parking within Dean Clough complex - why not explore a bit!
Dean Clough, a massive mill complex, home of Crossley's Carpets for 180 years (and where my Dad worked!), was regenerated as a business and arts centre - the Phoenix rising from the ashes. The Phoenix is actually there as a rather impressive sculpture. The cache is situated just the other side of the wall (which the head can just be seen over!). Given the number of security cameras on the Dean Clough site itself, thought it best to have the cache off-site.
John Crossley, founder of Crossleys Carpets, was born in 1772. He was apprenticed to his uncle, John Webster, as a carpet weaver, before going to work for a William Currer at Luddenden. About 1800, he became manager of Job Lee's carpet factory in the Lower George Yard, Halifax. In 1802, John, his brother Thomas, and James Travis took a lease on Dean Clough Mills. After 20 years, the lease expired and the partnership dissolved. John renewed the lease in his own right. In 1830, he bought out the only other carpet factory in Halifax, Messrs Abbott and Ellerton. When he died in 1837 aged 64, there were 300 employees at Dean Clough. The business was carried on by his 3 sons, John, Joseph and Francis. In 1864, John Crossley and Sons was formed into a joint stock company, one of the first in the country to take advantage of the Limited Liability Company legislation passed in 1862. Four fifths of the shares were kept by the 3 brothers. The prospectus indicates that they had factories at Halifax and Kidderminster, and warehouses at London and Manchester at this stage. By 1900, the workforce stood at 5000. During the First World War, production was switched to produce webbing, blankets and khaki yarn, and machine shops were turned over to shell production. There were similar changes during the Second World War. In 1953, John Crossley and Sons Ltd and Carpet Trades Ltd, Kidderminster, were amalgamated into John Crossley and Carpet Trade Holdings. In 1969, came the merger with the Carpet Trades Manufacturing Company of Kidderminster into Carpets International. In 1970, the Chairman, Patrick Crossley, retired and the Headquarters of the Group was moved to Kidderminster. In 1982, the decision to close Dean Clough became known, and the last carpet stocks produced there were moved out in 1987. After 6 generations of Crossleys, carpet manufacture at Dean Clough came to an end.
Additional Hints
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