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GRO Redlers IMG 0815
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This was the site of the medieval Dudbridge Mill, recorded from the late 12th century, when Gilbert Canis held it. By 1608, the mill was occupied by Henry Halliday, and in the mid 18th century, Daniel Chance had three fulling mills, one corn mill, one gig mill and a dyehouse with eight drying racks here. The Stroudwater Canal plan marks the site as 'Mr. Chances Mills'.
In the early 19th century, or possibly as early as 1794, John Apperly took a lease of the mill, and for the next 140 years the family ran it as a woollen cloth making firm. In 1834, the management of the business passed to John's sons James and David. In 1872, David's son Sir Alfred Apperly took control. In 1895, the firm was incorporated as Apperley Curtis and Co. Ltd. In 1889, there were 90 looms and 6,950 spindles at the mill, but in 1933, it became bankrupt and Redler Conveyers took over the site.
Redlers was founded in 1922 by Arnold Redler at Sharpness as Redler Patents Ltd. They moved to Dudbridge in the 1930s, taking over the Apperly Curtis site. They manufactured conveyors, elevators and other equipment for bulk handling and for malting. In the early 1990s, Redler Conveyors was purchased by the Swiss company Buhler. Initially, manufacturing continued on the site, but it had ceased by the late 1990s, when the site was redeveloped as a trading estate.
In 1833, John Apperly said that the greater part of his buildings had been erected in the last three years, but many of Apperly Curtis' buildings were rebuilt in brick in the 1860s and 1870s. There was a major fire in 1891 and some of them had to be rebuilt after that. In recent years much of the site has been cleared, although there is still a long brick range of 1910 with circular windows on the roadside, a tall late 19th century water tower behind, and, across the River Frome, part of the good Gothic stone office block of c.1870, probably designed by William Clissold, who was associated with the firm.
Two other companies also had a presence on the site. Copeland Chatterson (known locally as Cope Chat) was established in 1913 to manufacture loose-leaf ledgers, and later established itself as the leading manufacturer of business systems for buyers and accounting forms. The Stroud Metal Co. was once a leading manufacturer of umbrella components.
A mill building on the south side of the site, called Lower Mill, was sold by the Apperleys in 1868. It was used first by Tubbs & Lewis, elastic manufacturers, who gave it up in 1881, and about 1890, it was taken over by Thomas Bond Worth of Stourport, carpet manufacturers, who later moved to Ham Mill, Stroud. Lower Mill was bought back by Apperley Curtis & Co. in 1902.
From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local
History Society
Revised 2018 EMW
