Coloured Woven Cloth Production by Barden Mill Co., (Burnley) Ltd

Warp twisting and high speed pirn winding? Come inside a Lancashire mill to find out more.

Warp dressing and twisting, pirn winding and chain beaming. Take a detailed look at the stages of cloth production at the Barden Mill Company in the Lancashire town of Burnley. Designers, skilled craftsmen, mill workers and the high technology of the day all have a role to play. The film concludes in the works canteen where Christmas dinner is prepared and served to the employees.

Sam Hanna was a Burnley-born amateur filmmaker with a lifelong passion for making films. Born in 1903, he became a teacher of handicrafts and, against strong opposition from the education authorities, pioneered the use of film in the classroom. Self-taught, Hanna's filmmaking spanned six decades, from the 1930s to the 1980s. Sam was also an inventor, developing new techniques for screening and editing films such as the daylight screen, the Loop Absorber and the Effects Box.