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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Clothing |
| Founded | 1770s |
| Founders | John Paton James Baldwin |
| Defunct | 1961 |
| Fate | Merged |
| Successor | Coats plc |
| Products | Yarn |
Patons and Baldwins was a leadingBritish manufacturer ofknittingyarn. It was an original constituent of theFT 30 index of leading companies on theLondon Stock Exchange.
The business began as two separate companies: J & J Baldwin and Partners, founded in the late 1770s by James Baldwin ofHalifax,West Yorkshire,England, and John Paton Son and Co., founded in 1814 by John Paton ofAlloa,Scotland.[1] Both men had formed their businesses using thespinning mule developed bySamuel Crompton. They mainly produced yarns for commercial knitting machines.
The Paton family were regarded as generous benefactors in the town of Alloa, where they provided funding for a significant range of public building projects, includingAlloa Town Hall, public libraries, a school, a swimming pool, and a gymnasium.
The two companies merged in 1920 and diversified into producingwool for home knitters, as well as publishingknitting patterns under the "Patons Rose" and "Baldwins Beehive" trademarks.
By the mid-1930s, the company had establishments across Scotland andNorthern England, including factories atBillingham andJarrow, as well as inCanada,New Zealand, and a large factory inLaunceston,Tasmania,Australia. The company branched out into various related lines of business, including the running of anangora rabbit farm inStaffordshire between 1932 and 1934,[2] and the development of new products such asnylon andTerylene.[1]
In 1951, the headquarters of the business was relocated fromSpring Hall, Halifax to a 140-acre site inDarlington,County Durham, where a single-storey factory employing 4,000 people was developed at a cost of £7.5 million.[1] The factory had its own railway sidings and produced 113 tons of yarn every week.[3]
In 1961, the company was merged withJ & P Coats Ltd. The Patons trademark is still in use today.[4] Ownership passed from Coats plc to Mez Crafts and then in 2020 toDMC.[5]
The yarn production facility at Alloa was closed in 1999.[6] The bulk of the surviving business records from the Alloa operation, together with some material from other factories, is now held by Clackmannanshire Archives in Alloa.[7]
The large factory in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, a 35-acre site, employed over 2,000 people in the 1960s. By 1982 the factory employed 604 people. The business was sold in the late 1980s; it passed through several owners until 1995 when it produced its last bail of yarn. The factory closed on 31 July 1997.[8][9]In Australia the Patons brand is manufactured by Wangaratta Woollen Mills in Victoria, and has been a heritage Australian brand since 1923.
The factory in Tasmania operated the Patons & Baldwins Soccer Club, afootball club that played in the localNorthern Premier League. The club wasstate champion in 1926[10] and 1930, and won the Northern Premier League 10 times between 1925 and 1958. It was closed in the early 1960s.
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