Editing Macclesfield (section)

=== Industry ===
{{main|The Silk Industry of Cheshire#Macclesfield}}
[[File:Macclesfield Paradise Mill 1578.JPG|thumb|Paradise Mill]]
Macclesfield was once the world's biggest producer of [[Silk throwing|finished silk]].{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} A domestic button industry had been established in the town by the mid-16th century, although the first mention of silk buttons is not until 1649.<ref name=Beck_p52 /><ref name=Hodson_p149 /> In the mid-18th century, when metal buttons became fashionable, the silk-button industry transitioned to silk manufacture in mills. Macclesfield's first silk mill was founded by [[Charles Roe]] in 1743 or 1744.<ref name=Hartwell_intro /><ref>Hodson, pp. 109, 149–50</ref> The mills were initially powered by water, and later by steam.<ref name=Hartwell_intro /> There were [[List of textile mills in Cheshire#Macclesfield|71 silk mills]] operating in 1832,{{citation needed|date=January 2020}} employing 10,000 people, but a crash occurred in 1851 and many mill-workers emigrated to the American silk town of [[Paterson, New Jersey]].<ref name=Hartwell_intro /> The silk industry remained active in the town in the 1980s, but no longer dominated.<ref>Tigwell, pp. 15, 17, 68–69</ref> Paradise Mill reopened in 1984 as a working mill museum, demonstrating the art of silk throwing and [[Jacquard weaving]].<ref>[http://www.peaksandplains.co.uk/whattodo/attractions-detail.asp?IdNo=56 Paradise Mill website.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311124315/http://www.peaksandplains.co.uk/whattodo/attractions-detail.asp?IdNo=56 |date=11 March 2007 }} Retrieval Date: 15 October 2007.</ref><ref>Tigwell, p. 140</ref> The four [[Macclesfield Museums]] display a range of information and products from that period.

A short-lived [[copper]]-smelting operation was established by Roe in 1750, processing ore from mines at [[Alderley Edge]] and [[Ecton Mines|Ecton]] ([[Staffordshire]]), and later from [[Anglesey]]. The business switched to copper processing and the manufacture of [[brass]] in 1767, before closing after Roe's death in 1781. The industry is reflected in some of the town's street names.<ref name=Hartwell_intro /><ref>Hodson, pp. 144–45</ref>

Between 1826 and 1831 the [[Macclesfield Canal]] was constructed,<ref name="Tim Boddington">{{Cite web |last=Tim Boddington |title=The Macclesfield Canal |url=http://www.macclesfieldcanal.org.uk/ |access-date=28 November 2006 |archive-date=27 November 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061127091945/http://www.macclesfieldcanal.org.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref> linking Macclesfield to [[Marple, Greater Manchester|Marple]] to the north and [[Kidsgrove]] to the south. The canal was surveyed for its Act of Parliament by the canal and roads engineer [[Thomas Telford]], and built by William Crosley (junior),<ref name="Tim Boddington" /> the Macclesfield Canal Company's engineer. It was the last narrow canal to be completed and had only limited success because within ten years much of the coal and other potential cargo was increasingly being transported by rail.

[[File:Hovismill.jpg|thumb|Hovis Mill on the [[Macclesfield Canal]] in the town.]]
Macclesfield is the original home of [[Hovis|Hovis breadmakers]], produced in Publicity Works Mill (commonly referred to as "the Hovis Mill") on the canal close to Buxton Road. It was founded by a Macclesfield businessman and a baker from [[Stoke-on-Trent]]. ''Hovis'' is said to derive from the Latin "homo-vitalis" (strength for man) as a way of providing a cheap and nutritious food for poor mill workers and was a very dry and dense wholemeal loaf completely different from the modern version.

Waters Green was once home to a nationally known horse market which features in the legend of the Wizard of [[Alderley Edge]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Axon |first=William Edward Armytage |title=Cheshire Gleanings |publisher=Tubbs, Brook & Chrystal |year=1884 |location=Manchester |pages=57 |language=en}}</ref>
Waters Green and an area opposite [[Arighi Bianchi]], now hidden under the Silk Road, also held a sheep and cattle market until the 1980s.

Macclesfield is said to be the only mill town to have escaped bombing in [[World War II]].<ref name="maccex">{{Cite web |date=31 August 2004 |title=Missing movie classic unearthed by Macc Lad |url=http://www.macclesfield-express.co.uk/news/s/405/405729_missing_movie_classic_unearthed_by_macc_lad.html |website=Macclesfield Express |access-date=5 September 2009 |archive-date=16 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116180621/http://www.macclesfield-express.co.uk/news/s/405/405729_missing_movie_classic_unearthed_by_macc_lad.html |url-status=live }}</ref> After the war, two pharmaceutical companies opened facilities in Macclesfield, Geigy (now part of [[Novartis]]) and the pharmaceutical division of [[Imperial Chemical Industries|ICI]] (now [[AstraZeneca]]).<ref>Tigwell, pp. 15, 55</ref>