SOUND ARCHIVE

Living Linen Interview LL2_R00/41

Sound Recording : Magnetic Tape, Reel

Barnett, Johnny (Mr) (Primary maker)
Barnett, Johnny (Mr) (interviewee)

01/06/2000
01/06/2000

Sound Recording on Reel: RSO, Grays Carpets & Textiles, ???, India & Lancashire. Library Transcript: Transcript. Summary: Mr Barnett grew up on a family farm in Derryadd. As the second son it was understood that he would not inherit the land, and would have to earn his living through other means. Mr Barnett responded to a newspaper advert in 1927 and joined the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The firm had purchased the Windsor Factory in Lurgan and needed a management apprentice. This was a modern factory with an excellent workflow and up to date machinery. Mr Barnett attended Lurgan Tech. Jack McCollum was in the same class. Jack went on to set up his own handloom weaving business, weaving the fine damasks for the Royal household. Most of McCollum's looms were in cottages around the countryside. Windsor wove cambrics and sheers. Lurgan had a flourishing textile industry. Each morning people congregated at the factory gates hoping to be taken on. As Bessbrook had purchased the factory there were few teething problems in setting up production. Most of the employees were re-engaged. Mr Barnett stayed with the firm for 121/2 years, becoming assistant manager. During his time at Windsor he introduced Dobby weaving. Mr Barnett also taught weaving at Bessbrook 'Tech, which was owned, financed and equipped by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. In 1939 Mr Barnett joined LIRA and taught at Lurgan 'Tech during the war. In 1945 he went to Madras, in India, as a weaving master. He was quickly appointed mill manager. This was a vertical operation with 2,800 looms and a total of 13,000 employees. The firm worked with cotton and rayon mostly. Health and safety considerations, working conditions and rates of pay (in real terms) were directly comparable to Northern Ireland. Mr Barnett returned after three years for family reasons. He was appointed weaving manager for Murphy Stevenson in Dromore. There were 450 looms in Dromore weaving damasks, cambrics and sheers. They also produced cotton jacquard bedspreads. Despite the quality of its cloth, Dromore was shut. The firm had encountered labour problems and felt that the future of the textile trade lay in table linen rather than fine cambrics and sheers. For this end they set up a new factory in Ligoniel - Victoria Weaving. New looms were purchased and moved into the building which had been a munitions plant in WWI before Wolfhill used it as a store. Recruitment proved difficult, for although Ligoniel was a textile community it was almost exclusively spinning. Mr Barnett set up a weaving school in Ligoniel and trained the workers en masse. 5 years later Mr Barnett was asked to go to Lancashire to manage a very old and respected cotton firm - Simpson & Godley. The company made furnishing fabrics for the Royal Family. They wove the finest cloth Mr Barnett had ever seen on what was probably a unique loom; a pressure harness arrangement with 16 heddle shafts weaving 256 ends per inch. They also worked for the National Trust, replacing furnishing fabrics complete with designer moth holes and faded colours. The contraction of the Lancashire cotton trade was even more rapid than that of linen. In 1963 Mr Barnett finally closed the firm. He returned to India, as weaving manager, to a green field site near Madaret. Mr Barnett was asked to buy 1,000 looms of his own choice and ship them to India. The cotton trade in India was booming. Mr Barnett had some input into the layout of the factory. Mr Barnett saw out his ten year contract and retired at 60 - returning to Lurgan. He has since worked as a consultant in Galway and for Schott.

HOYFM.R2000.87

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