Taylor, Lang & Co

Taylor, Lang & Co. was a textile machinery manufacturer based in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, England.

The company was founded in 1852 as a tradesmen's co-operative with twenty-three members. It was originally known locally as 'The Amalgamated Shop'. The name 'Taylor Lang' may have originated in 1859.

Taylor, Lang & Co. was based at the Castle Iron Works on Grosvenor Street, Stalybridge. The site is currently occupied by a Tesco Superstore. The founders worked long hours at a reduced wage until the business was well-established and later became known all over the world as Taylor Lang's.

The company designed and manufactured cotton spinning machinery, distributing to a global market. The company's fortunes closely mirrored the broader fortunes of England's cotton manufacturing industry, although export markets later reduced reliance on domestic markets.

In August 1892 William Thomas Watts – the eldest son of one of the company's founders wrote:

"Our business and Cotton Spinning is in a disastrous condition at present. One of the events of the year has been the big strike at The Stalybridge Cotton Mill, lasted about 7 months, and only settled by a universal stoppage of the spinning industries in the three Counties."

In January 1995 William Thomas Watts wrote:

"We have passed through one of the worst business years that our Lancashire men can remember since the American war. Prices have been so cut and pared that it's becoming a common remark that one ought to be thankful to be able to hold one's own. From a statistical return published a few days ago it appears that 93 limited spinning firms taken together for the whole year 1984 have earned upon the whole of th Capital invested in the shape of Shares and Loans the magnificent result of 1 an 7/8% profit. For ourselves, I think we have done rather better than during the previous year, but that is not saying much, as we had been showing a loss for the year."

By 1895 William Thomas Watts wrote that:

"There is certainly much more being sent away in the shape of Spinning Machinery than is being used at home. Makers are fairly well occupied for China and Japan. We have a fair quantity of India this year. We are just completing a large order for Russia. I am expecting from Italy and from Germany and am hoping to hear favourably from the U. States unless the absurd silliness about Venezuela passes out of all control and becomes dangerously contagious."

In the 1920s it acquired Lord Bros. of Todmorden.

In the recession of the 1930s, Platt Brothers, Howard and Bullough, Brooks and Doxey, Asa Lees, Dobson and Barlow, Joseph Hibbert, John Hetherington and Tweedales and Smalley merged to become Textile Machinery Makers Ltd. Taylor, Lang & Co. was the largest company outside this group, but was acquired in 1936. The individual units continued to trade under their own names until 1970, when they were rationalised into one company, Platt UK Ltd. In 1991, this company became Platt Saco Lowell.