Welcome to the exhibition
TEXTILE MARK

In Rydal’s spinning mill, thread has been manufactured since 1854.Production ceased in 2004. Now the museum makes the thread. Welcome into our spinning hall and the TEXTILE MARK exhibition.

1. At the border

Today we often talk about Mark Municipality (Marks kommun), but the current municipal borders are not the same as the borders of the historical Mark. That was larger.

The name Mark itself means border area or border forest. The name probably derives from the fact that for a long time, the area was situated on the border between Denmark and Sweden. Halland, which borders on Mark and Västergötland, was Danish territory until 1658.

The area between danish Halland and swedish Västergötland was characterised by large and mountanious forests. These parts were well known by the local people, but to strangers they were frightening and difficult to cross.

For this reason they preferred to travel through Mark in the valleys along the major watercourses Viskan, Häggån and Surtan.

Mark is one of the seven counties in the geographical area in Västergötland that is often referred to as ”Sjuhäradsbygden” (The region of the Seven Counties).

2. Conflict zone

As a borderland between Sweden and Denmark, Mark has been a troubled area throughout history. Already in the 13th and 14th centuries, armies frome the two nations battled for the control of Västergötland.

Soldiers from both sides often passed through Mark and the valley along the stream Viskan. The farmers living here were forced to provide the troops with food, beer and other necessities.

These were hard times for the people of Mark, who were already poor. Eventually the Swedes and the Danes agreed to make peace. This took place in Roskilde in Denmark in February 1658. This is when Skåne, Halland and Blekinge became part of Sweden.
The peace made the situation somewhat better for the inhabitants of Mark.

3. Trading Centre

Mark’s location close to danish Halland, the coast and the ports in the west made this area suitable for trade. Goods and new ideas from abroad spread quickly and inspired the local handicraft.

Among other things, the farmers in Mark traded in livestock (mainly oxen), fabrics and various kinds of handicraft products. For these goods, they traded for example herring, cereals, salt and wrought iron.

The farmers of Mark preferred selling their oxen to the danes in Halland because they offered better payment and it was nearby. This cross-border trade was outlawed by the swedish king Gustav Vasa in 1524. The punishment for those who dared to defie the royal ban was beheading!

This led to great discontent among the farmers. Despite the threath of being punished with death, many farmers continued their lucrative trade with the danes.

4. The multitasking inhabitants of Mark

All the steep hills, rocky grounds and swampy peat bogs made it almost impossible to subsist solely on farming in these parts of the country. It was therefore necessary to combine farming with other kinds of activities.

During the medeival ages, many farmers in Sjuhäradsbygden were engaged in breeding of oxen. It was possible to combine this with for example woodworking, forging and weaving.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the decidous forests in the area had been devastated to the point where it was no longer possible to keep large herds of cattle here. There simply were not enough leaves – at that time an important source of forage for the animals.

The majority of the largest trees had been cut down to be used as material for the manufacturing of warships for the Swedish Navy!

5. Textile farmers

As the farmers of Mark no longer could trade in oxen, the textile craft became even more important. The people in the region had since way back been known for their skills in textile manufacturing, for example the kind of woolen fabrics called wadmal.

In the 16th century, common people in Mark were even allowed to pay their taxes in cloth rather than in cereals and other agricultural products which otherwise was the usual practise.

During the 18th century, a lot of local farmers swiched from sheep and wool production to growing flax and weaving linen cloth. For the rapidly increasing number of poor crofters who owned no land of their own, the practise of home weaving became a matter of survival.

6. Wealthy farmers become Cloth Agents

Through the trade of various goods from the region, some farmers made enough profit to be able to purcase raw materials for textile manufacturing, such as flax and wool, instead of producing it themselves. These materials were then distributed to others in the vicinity who spun and wove on behalf of the farmer.

The finished products, yarn and woven fabrics, were then handed back to the farmer in exchange for some renumeration. In his turn, the farmer could pass the goods on to a traveling pedlar, locally known by the name ”knalle”. As the pedlar returned from his ”sales trip” he paid to the farmer what he owed.

Over time, this way of outsourcing the manufacturing of textile products became very common in the region and is known as the ”putting-out system”. The farmers who bought the raw material and handed it out to the contracted home weavers are known as cloth agents (in swedish: ”förläggare”).

7. Pedlars trading throughout the country

The travelling salesmen were key persons of the cloth agents trading system.
These pedlars from Sjuhäradsbygden became known as ”knallarna”. The tradition of travelling salesmen goes back a long way, but it is primarily at the beginning of the 19th century that the number of pedlars grow significantly. This mainly as an effect from the the expanding trade of the cloth agents.

The trade journeys could last for several months and extend across almost all of Sweden. Many pedlars also sold their goods in Norway.

The travelling pedlar often combined his sales business with farming. Therefore he preferred to leave home in the autumn or during the winter when there was less to do at the farm. His wife and children had to take on great responisbility for the work back home. A pedlar usually made at least a couple of journeys each year.

He collected his goods from the cloth agent. In general, he had one year to pay what he owed. Some sucessful pedlars also had their own warehouses along the way.

The pedlars rarely went alone on their trips. Usually several of them travelled together and sometimes they formed long caravans with oxen, horses and fully loaded carts along the roads.

Sometimes this even litteraly caused trafic jams and crowded inns. In 1803 it was therefore decided that pedlars were from then on should only be permitted to travel in groups of maximum six people.

As their journey continued, they spread out in their various trade districts. The pedlard did not only visit customers in farms and villages at their district, but could also sell their goods at marketsplaces in the cities as well as in the countryside.

8. Order now - delivery at your doorstep in a year!

The pedlar brought a variety of product samples to temt his customers. He also brought the products ordered by the customers at his previous visit, mostly about one year earlier.

Not only did the pedlar bring the goods, but also news, gossip and exciting stories from near and far that he had picked up along his many journeys. Not all pedlars traded in textiles, but they tended to be specialised in certain types of products. Besides the ”cloth pedlars”, there were for instance also pedlars who brought wooden bowls, tin pails or baskets.

In a way one could say that the pedlar was the predecessor of the mail-order and web shops of later days.

9. Cotton comes to Sweden

At the beginning of the 19th century, a great amount of cotton cloth had begun to be imported into Sweden, mainly from England. This kind of textile was a novelty to most swedes, and it soon became very popular due to its variety in qualities, colurs and patterns – and at prices that were affordable to many customers. And, not the least, they also proved to be durable and easy washable!

The cloth agents of Mark quickly understood that there was money to be made from cotton textiles.

The downside of it was that cotton could not be grown in Sweden. And to start with there were no swedish mills that produced cotton yarn. The cotton was grown in the US and the yarn had to be bought from british manufacturers. Nevertheless, an increasing number of cloth agents switched to cotton yarn and in just twenty years the production of wool and linen cloth in Mark had almost ceased entirely. Now it was all about cotton!

10. Across land and Sea

The cotton’s journey from southern USA to the cloth agents of Mark was long. It had to pass through many intermediaries before it reached the weavers.

First, the cotton was harvested by slave workers on the plantations in the southern states of the US. After cleaning and packing, it was transported to the port cities of the american east coast. From there, the cotton was shipped across the Atlantic ocean to England, where it was spun to yarn in the british spinning mills. The finished yarn was then loaded onto ships taking it further over the Northern Sea to the importers at the port of Gothenburg, Sweden. The cloth agents bought the yarn from the importers and took it by horse- or oxen carried carts the seventy kilometres tho the farmers estates in Mark.

If any logistic problem arouse somewhere along the way from the United States to Mark, it affected not only the cloth agents but also in the end the weavers and the pedlars.
They now all became part of a globalized trade.

11. Stop the cotton invasion!

In 1816, the swedish parliament decided to greatly increase the duty on imported cotton fabrics. It even became illegal to bring certain kinds of cotton cloth into the country. The reason was a concern that the foreign fabrics would totally outcompete the swedish manufacturers of wool and linen goods.

But, if anything, these measures had the opposite effect: The smuggling of cotton fabrics across the border increased significantly. Moreover, the prohibition did not apply to ready-spun cotton yarns, which instead had its import duty decreased and thus became even more attractive for the swedish buyers.

12. Beneficial to the cloth agents

When the duty on cotton yarn was decreased from 1816, it became cheaper for the cloth agents to buy it. At the same time, it had become more difficult to import ready made fabrics from abroad. But the demant kept growing. It now became profitable to produce cotton cloth in Sweden and many cloth agents expanded their business, and further more agents appeared on the market. Some of them eventually became very wealthy.

In just fourteen years, 1830 – 1844, the production of cotton cloth in Mark increased fivefold. Most of it was still woven by hand by the home weavers in cottages and farmhouses. in 1830, there were a total of 50 cloth agents in Mark alone. The majority of them were dealing with cotton fabrics. Together these agents employed around 4000 adults and also a great number of children.

13. Cloth merchants Manorhouses

The cloth agent also had his warehouse on the estate, where yarns, finished fabrics ribbons and other textile goods were stored.

These kind of manorhouses are typical of Sjuhäradsbygden (The Seven Counties region).
The major part of remaining houses of this kind are to be found in Mark. Many of them are located along the valley following the stream Häggån, between the small towns of Fritsla and Kinna.

14. Mother Kerstin and her son Sven

Kerstin Andersdotter had, together with her husband Erik Andersson, a farm called Stämmemad close to the small village Kinna in Mark. Erik died 1813 and Kerstin then continued developing their cloth agent business. In 1816 she married Nils Andersson.

Kerstin came from a family with a long history of cloth trading in Mark. Her father as well as her uncles were cloth agents. It is said that, by the end of the first decade of the 19th century, Karin bought a few skeins of cotton yarn during a visit to Gothenburg in order to try out weaving with this new material. She is said to have been the first weaver in Mark to use cotton. She was satisfied with the result and she started to sell her home woven cotton cloths. Kerstins cloths became popular and she made good money from them.

Encouraged by this pioneer in swedish cotton textile trade, it did not take long before other cloth agents started to buy cotton yarns and hand it out to their home veawers. The new material soon outcompeted the traditional wool and linen textiles of the region.

In 1801, her son Sven was born and, as was customary in those days, he was given the surname Erikson after his father’s forename. When Sven was 12 years old, his father died and from an early age he had to help his mother and his five younger siblings with both farming and textile trade.

In 1825, he married Anna Johansdotter from Storegården in Kinna and that same year he started his own cloth agent business. The newly-weds settled at Kinna Rättaregården, an estate that he had bought in 1824 during his engagement to Anna.

Sven invested heavily in cotton cloth and soon became one of the most successful cloth agents in Mark. Over time he accumulated a very large fortune. Besides his business acumen, Sven was apparently also a person who was curious about new things and open to opportunities for development. It did not take long until he was ready for new challenges.

15. Practice makes perfect

Out in the cottages and farms in Mark, girls learned the art of weaving at a very young age. They started by helping the more experienced weavers with simple tasks, for example winding yarn onto bobbins. It took many years to master the different stages of weaving. The skills were passed on from mothers to daughters through the generations.

There are a vast variety of weaving techniques and methods, depending on what quality and pattern is desired in the final fabric. The weaver often specialised in certain varieties of weaving. The weaver would write down patterns and useful notes in her highly valued heddle book. But still, most of her knowledge was in her mind and hands.

The weaver had to maintain high quality in her work. The cloth agent inspected her finished products closely. If he decided that the result was not good enough, he would make a deduction from the payment agreed.

16. Weaving for life

Weaving was of vital importance for many hoseholds in Mark.Even though the weaver was usually not particulary well paid by the cloth agent for the finished cloth, the income was still essential for the family’s economy. It was important that she could spend as much time as possible in her loom. Other chores in the home and at the farm were therefore taken care of by the rest of the family members.Everybody had to help out, even the small children.

Boys and men also had to take care of chores that were traditionally regarded as ”womens work”, such as feeding the animals and spinning yarn.

17. 8 – 10 Cubits per day

In the Crown Sheriff’s report for the years of 1865 – 1870 it is said that ”a maid weaves an average of 8 to 10 cubits of cloth a day”. This corresponds to almost unbeleivable 9 to 12 metres.

The skill of a weaver who had practised since childhood and developed her technique to perfection over the years allowed a production rate that is hard for us today to comprehend. One should also bare in mind, that for the home weaver there were no such thing as fixed work hour workdays. She spent as much time in the loom as possible.

18. The gate to a new age

In the early 19th century, the first textile factories started appearing in Sweden. They were opened by wealthy merchants, landowners and others with capital to invest. Here in Mark, several of the factories were founded by successful cloth agents, such as Sven Erikson. More and more people, both children and adults, left their life as crofters and farmers and instead became factory workers.

It was an enormous change that affected a great number of people when the old textile tradition stepped into the industrial age.

19. The dream factory

We do not know exactly when and how Sven Erikson had the idea to open Sweden’s first mechanised cotton mill. But in the winter of 1833, he went to Stockholm to meet the industrialist John Barker. Mr Baker from Lancashire in England knew what was required to start a factory. He had previously been employed at Cockerill’s mechanised factories in Belgium. There they made everything from steam locomotives to textile machines.

It may have been Barker who showed Sven Erikson a drawing of an English weaving mill. At that point, Sven is supposed to have said: “Great scot, there I’ll have fifteen thousand instead of fifteen hundred weavers!”

20. Sven Erikson’s first factory

With capital from the cloth agent business and inspiration from the English textile industry, Sven Erikson started Sweden’s first mechanised cotton weaving mill. He chose the site of Rydboholm by the Viskan River, south-west of Borås. The factory was named Rydboholms Konstväfveri.
The year was 1834.

21. Heavy Metal

Sven Erikson commissioned John Barker to deliver mechanical looms and drive mechanisms to the cotton mill in Rydboholm.Barker ensured that the necessary parts were made according to his instructions at Åkers iron works outside Strängnäs and Munktell’s workshops in Eskilstuna.

Nobody had done anything like this in Sweden before, so they had to use English rawmodels.

The drive shafts, gear wheels and other parts from Åkers cannon factory weighed over ten tonnes. The mechanical looms from Munktell’s weighed about 500 kilos (1 102 pounds) each.
A total of 25 looms were in place when production started in December 1835.

22. Transport route

In November 1834, the first machine parts were transported by steamship across Lake Mälaren to Stockholm. From there, the journey continued south along the coast to Söderköping, and then they reached Jönköping via Göta Canal and Lake Vättern. After this, the heavy transport continued on rough roads, uphill and downhill, with carts drawn by oxen or horses. Where snow had already fallen, they had to use sledges. Finally, they reached the building site in Rydboholm.

23. Culture clash

The mechanised weaving mill in Rydboholm was the first of its kind in Sweden. Therefore, they had to get help from abroad to get the business running. Most employees had never worked in a factory before and were unfamiliar with both the environment and the new technology. In addition, many of the foremen were from England and did not speak Swedish.

24. Top of the class

Before the mid-19th century, there was no other factory in Sweden that could produce as much cotton cloth as Rydboholms Konstväveri. The factory was gradually expanded with more looms and a unit for dying the cloth. At its peak, the weaving mill in Rydboholm produced almost 95 % of all machine-made cotton cloth in Sweden.

25. A spinning mill comes into being

During the first half of the 19th century, the demand for cotton yarn increased rapidly. Buying from abroad became more and more expensive. The few Swedish cotton spinning mills that had come into operation were not able to deliver enough. Together with local cloth agents, merchants and factory owners, Sven Erikson founded the limited company Rydsdals Bomullsspinneri (cotton mill) in 1853. Soon after, the name was changed to Rydahls Manufaktur Aktiebolag.

Only wealthy people had the possibility to become partners in the spinning mill. It cost at least 1,000 riksdaler, which is the equivalent of about 100,000 Swedish kronor today. Sven himself invested most of all, 40,000 riksdaler. He was also elected chairman of the board of the company. The construction of the factory started in the summer of 1853 and already one year later, the yarn production could begin.

26. Rock blasting and potato boiling

It took about a year to build the factory in Rydal. It was built completely without machinery. In the beginning, most of the work consisted in blasting rocks and levelling the ground.

Dynamite had not yet been invented, so they used so called blasting powder. They drilled a hole in the rock with iron bars and sledgehammers. Then it was the blaster’s task to fill the holes with powder, insert a fuse and light it. And leave quickly!

They dug and hacked by hand. Heavy boulders were hoisted with ropes, blocks and tackles that were mounted in simple wooden lifting devices. Everything was transported by carts and sledges drawn by oxen or horses. About twenty bricklayers and a blacksmith were present during the whole construction period, but the largest group were just called “the workers”, around 230 people during the summer of 1853.

Most workers came from farms and cottages nearby. Some lived further away. If you ran out of provisions, you could go to Kok-Eli (“Boiler-Eli”) and buy potatoes that were boiled over an open fire.

27. The new construction by Viskan

The new factory was built here for several reasons. Most important was the access to hydropower from the stream Viskan . The site was well-placed for many cloth agents who needed cotton yarn. Sven Erikson’s own weaving mill in Rydboholm was also nearby. Rydal did not yet exist. The land needed for the factory was bought from two farms; Ryds Övregård and Ryds Nedregård. The purchase included a sawmill and a gristmill, both water-powered. The factory owners probably got the idea for the name “Rydal” from the names of these farms. Ryd is a very old swedish word meaning a cleared place. Soon, a small community started to develop around the factory.

28. Powerful

To power the newly built spinning mill in Rydal with all its machinery, a very large water wheel was ordered in 1853 from the English company Fairbairn & Sons in Manchester. According to Rydal’s spinning master Davies, himself an Englishman, this was supposed to be “the bäste water-hjol i werlden” (the best waterwheel in the world) as he expressed it.

Unfortunately, the best water wheel in the world proved not to be enough to keep the machines running all the time. The water flow in the river was often insufficient. To secure the power supply, they bought a 25-horsepower steam engine from Motala Mekaniska verkstad (Motala Mechanical Workshop) in 1861.

At the end of the 1860s, the water wheel was replaced by turbines, which were much more effective in making use of the water’s power. In 1881, the turbines were connected to a generator, which converted the hydropower into electricity. This is also when the arc lamps in Rydal’s spinning mill were turned on.

This was not only the first time that a Swedish factory had electrical indoor lighting, but also the first time in Sweden that electricity was produced from hydropower.

29. From near and far

A lot of manpower was required for the newly-built spinning mill. Both men, women and children. Many came from the farms and cottages nearby. In the factory, a woman could make up to three times as much money compared to weaving at home. Some of the workers who had participated in building the factory were hired immediately. In the beginning, people with previous experience of working in a textile factory were also needed. For this reason, a lot of people came from places that already had spinning mills, such as Alingsås and Lindome. Finding accommodation for all newcomers became a problem.

”Some could not have been more than 7 or 8 years old. Most of them were pale and looked weak. The foreman showed us one child after the other who had been begging on the roads and were now diligent workers in the company.”

Quote from: Charles L. Brace. Description of a visit to the Rydal spinning mill. From the book “The Norse Folk” published in New York in 1857.

30. Poor children – factory children

Poverty was wide spread in 19th century Sweden. It was common for children to beg, although it was forbidden by law. Many of these children were put to work in the factories. They were cheap labour. What little money the children earned was nevertheless an important contribution to the family’s livelihood. When production started at the Rydal spinning mill in 1854, the company had 206 employees. 56 of them were children under the age of 15. Many started at the factory when they were 12-13 years old. Some were even younger. Before the 20th century, minors usually worked as long days as adults, 10-12 hours per day except for Saturdays when they finished a little earlier.

31. Poor times

Wages were low in the textile industry. Around 1900, the annual earnings of an adult male factory worker in Rydal was about 400 kronor. Female employees made about 300 kronor. This is approximately 33 and 25 swedish kronor per month, respectively.

In the beginning, the company provided, among other things, rent-free accommodation and credit at the company store. Despite this, many families struggled to make ends meet. There were large wage gaps between ordinary workers, foremen and white-collar workers. The company’s bookkeeper had a salary that was about ten times as high as a man on the factory floor. The wages were usually paid once a week.

32. Factory and school

In 1842, it was mandated by law that all children in Sweden must attend school. In 1855, the company opened a school in Rydal and hired a teacher. At first, the children in Rydal only went to school on Sundays. On the other days, they worked in the factory. To begin with, they all were in the same class although they were of different ages. Only in 1881, a junior school was started for the first two grades. They had their own schoolmistress. Also in 1881, a new law was enacted, saying that children had to finish school before being allowed to start working. By then they were 12-13 years old. The factory owners did not approve of this, since children were cheap labour. Therefore, they could get time off from school if they showed the teacher a certificate that the factory had greater need for them.

33. The Rydal industrial community

Rydal developed around the factory. Almost all the inhabitants of Rydal worked for Rydahls Manufaktur Aktiebolag. Until 1915, the company’s employees could live rent-free in the workers’ houses. If they quit their job, they had to leave their home.

The company was in charge of the school, social services, sickness fund and grocery store. It was also possible to open a savings account with the company. For a long time, starting to work at the company was a matter of course for anyone growing up in Rydal. Whole families were employed. People were born, went to school, worked, aged and died in Rydal. For several generations. The company was in control of everything and everyone in the village. In this way Rydal was a typical mill village.

34. From shanty town to star houses

The first workers’ quarters at the factory were improvised constructions, assembled from the large wooden crates in which the machine parts had been delivered. In 1856, the first actual residential building for factory workers was completed and it was soon followed by more.

Most families lived in very cramped conditions. It was not uncommon for eight people to share a one-room apartment. Some apartments did not even have their own kitchen.

Until the 1890s, the residents had to fetch water from a source in the garden of the factory manager’s house. In 1941, all apartments had cold water indoors. They did not get hot water until the 1970s.

At the end of the 1940s, when things were going very well for the Rydal Company, they wanted to invest in better housing for the employees. They planned on building three modern high-rises, so called “star houses”, on the hill to the west of the river. The idea was to tear down the old rows of workers’ houses along the factory street. In the end, only one star house was built and the rows of workers’ houses are still standing.

35. A home of your own

The industries needed more and more workers, but it was hard to find housing for everyone.
It was understood that the often poor and cramped workers’ houses were bad for people’s health. In the 1910s, it became common to establish so called “owner-occupied” housing areas in mill villages and cities. This was a way of creating a better living environment. The companies funded the construction of small houses that the employees first rented, but could buy at cost price after a few years.

In Rydal, the first subsidized owner-occupied houses were built in 1914, in an area west of the Viskan River colloquially called “Klutakullen” (“Flag Hill”). The company also sold building plots to those who wanted to build their house themselves. In the 1920s, the for a building plot for an owner-occupied house in Rydal was 100 kronor. Favourable government loans were offered to those who built their own owner-occupied house. It was also possible to borrow from the company, at a higher interest rate.

36. The labour movement

When industrialisation really took off in Sweden around the middle of the 19th century, workers also began fighting for better conditions. But the employees did not have much say in the matter. Those who protested often lost their jobs instead. Sometimes workers showed their discontent through spontaneous strikes. For example, one such strike occurred in Rydal already in 1856.

Eventually, different occupational groups started organising into trade unions, which in turn united into trade union federations. Together, they became stronger.

In 1890, the Swedish Textile Workers’ Union was founded. But it was very difficult to persuade the textile workers in Mark to form trade unions. The textile companies and the Church had great influence over the people in the region. Few were willing to take the risk of coming into conflict with authorities. The first trade union for textile workers in Mark was formed in 1906. This was Section 50 of the Textile Workers’ Union, at Kungsfors spinning mill in Skene.

37. Section 70 Rydal

In August 1917, a trade union wa formed by employees at the Rydal spinning mill: Section 70 of the Textile Workers’ Union. The first meetings of the trade union were held in a peat barn in the forest, and later in the factory’s “hose house”, where firefighting equipment was stored. For a time, they also had their meetings in one of the buildings on Ryd’s farm.

Gradually, the trade union managed to negotiate better conditions for the workers at the factory. This was not just about salaries, but also things like working environment and working hours. From 1931, the newly-built Union House became the permanent meeting hall of Section 70.

38. Free time

As long as the working day was 10 hours or more and you also had to work Saturdays, leisure time was an unknown concept to most people. Outside of working hours, many other daily chores had to be done, not least by women, who took care of both children and housework. As working days became shorter, people started engaging in leisure activities and voluntary associations. In 1919, a law established the eight-hour working day, six days a week. This was something that the labour movement had been fighting for since 1890. The first statutory holiday was introduced in Sweden in 1938 and entitled all workers to two weeks of holiday per year. But not more than 12 weekdays.

39. Business & pleasure

The first associations were often of a rather practical and financial nature, such as Rydals Svin-kreatursförsäkringsförening (Rydal’s Swine-Cattle Insurance Association) and Rydals Arbetares sjuk- och begravningskassa (Rydal’s Workers’ Sickness and Funeral Fund).

Another form of early association activities was provided by the temperance movement. This was established at the end of the 19th century with different local sections, so called lodges. It was a reaction to the widespread alcohol abuse. The activities included organising lectures and excursions for the members. The Good Templars lodge in Rydal was called Solglimten (Glimpse of the sun) and from 1923 there was also a youth section: Barnens Lycka (Children’s happiness).

Associations focused on, for example, educational courses, charity, physical culture and health developed during the years following the First World War. Many people were engaged in the Rydal branch of the Red Cross, which organised various activities and relief efforts. Virtually all people in the community, young and old, were actively engaged in one or more associations.

40. Lots of sport...

Sports united and engaged the people in Rydal.

In 1923, Rydals Gymnastik- och Idrottsförening (Rydal’s Gymnastics and Athletics Association), Rydals GoIF, was founded. In the beginning, football, athletics and gymnastics were represented in the association. The company set aside some land for a sports ground with a football field right by the factory. A small stand and changing rooms were built. The premiere was in 1924. Over time, more sports were added in Rydals GoIF, including bandy, swimming, table tennis, skiing and orienteering. Just before the Second World War, a shooting club was also formed in the community. Rydal had the most success in bandy and football. A women’s football team was started already in the 1920s. During the 1940s and 1950s, Rydal was considered to have the strongest bandy team in Mark. At their peak, they managed to advance to the second division in 1975. 90 years after the founding of the association, almost to the day, Rydals GoIF was closed in 2013.

41. Spin-off effect

Many textile factories were started in Mark during the 19th century. As a result of this, several other kinds of businesses also developed in the region.

To build the factories, a lot of material was required, for example brick, both building bricks and roof tiles. In Mark alone, five brickworks were founded at the end of the 19th century. The largest was Lydde Brickworks outside Kinna.

Dye works and pattern printing works were also needed to dye yarns and cloths. One of Sweden’s largest dye works, Basterås Dye Works, opened in 1846 by the old farm estate Basterås in Fritsla. After a fire in 1879, the company moved to Kinna.

Another industry that took an upswing during industrialisation were the wood-turning mills. Hyssna was a centre for the turning industry in Sjuhäradsbygden. During the 1870s, some fifty spinning wheel turners worked there. Several of them also delivered turned yarn spools, so called bobbins, and other wooden parts for the machines of the textile factories. Over time, turning developed into an industry of its own.

42. Crisis management

Times of crisis occurred occasionally within the textile industry. The Rydal Company was no exception. This was often related to periods of war and unrest in the world. One of the first really tough periods happened in connection with the American Civil War in the 1860s.

Keeping experienced workers was very valuable. Therefore the company tried, as far as possible, to get through difficult periods without having to lay off personnel. If there was not enough work for everyone in the yarn production, people were given other tasks.

During the 1860s, for example, many people had to work on the company’s extensive forest lands. During the First World War of 1914 – 1918, the import of cotton was blocked. At that time, the company instead invested in improving the roads around Rydal and carried out several other building projects.

43. Leadership

When the spinning mill in Rydal opened in 1854, the activities on site were led by a spinning master. Among the workers, he was simply known as the Master. In his turn, he was in charge of several foremen who were responsible for the different sections of the factory. The spinning master had great influence over how the production was managed and how the employees were treated.

In 1912, the company board started appointing a managing director to lead the company. From then on, the Master’s responsibilities had a stronger focus on the actual production in the factory.

In 1921, the leadership of the Rydal Company was transferred to Torsten Ek, who was titled manager (“disponent” in Swedish). He was an educated engineer and had been employed as workshop master in 1914. In 1930, Torsten Ek was also appointed managing director. He retired in 1953, when Rydahls Manufaktur AB celebrated its centenary. Torsten Ek was the last of the company’s leaders who lived in Rydal. He was also the only person in the company’s history with the title of manager.

44. From single spun to novelty

For almost seventy years, only so called single spun cotton yarn was manufactured in the spinning mill in Rydal.

In 1919, they also started plying double and multiple-thread yarns. These yarns were intended for weaving and were divided into thicker warp yarns and finer weft yarns.

Then, in 1923, they introduced so called “novelty yarns”, also known as bouclé yarns.

By using different settings in the plying, the yarn could get an uneven structure with, for example, loops, fringes and knots. Often threads of different colours were mixed in the novelty yarns.

Rydahls Manufaktur AB was the first company in Sweden to produce this type of yarns. They became very popular and were used in many different textile products. From the 1970s, novelty-plied yarn was the company’s most important product and it was the leading manufacturer of these yarns in Northern Europe.

45. Synthetics and preparedness

In the 1930s, the Rydal Company began to spin yarn from the synthetic material Rayon, which is also called Viscose. Rayon is produced from cellulose from the forestry industry.

During the Second World War in the 1940s, it was important for the Swedish textile industries to use materials that could be produced within the country. They had to become less dependent on imported raw materials, such as cotton.

Another product that was the specialty of the Rydal factory and was considered important for Sweden’s preparedness was so called tyre cord. This is very durable and is used in the manufacture of, for example, car and bicycle tyres. During the 1940s, around half of all Sweden’s tyre cord was manufactured in the Rydal spinning mill. They also produced a special type of yarn for fuses.

46. Upholstery yarns and micro miracles

Over time, other materials were also introduced in the yarn production in Rydal. In the early 1960s, for example, they started spinning acrylic fibres. By the end of the same decade, a lot of yarn for upholstery fabrics was produced in a mix of wool and Rayon.

In 1970, they began manufacturing so called chenille yarn with newly purchased Italian machines. This yarn was used for velvety upholstery fabrics. The demand was so great that for a time they had to work in three shifts at the factory to be able to complete all the orders.

After changing the company’s name to Rydals Garn (Rydal’s Yarn) in 1983, they started investing in yarns for hand knitting. They also produced a special polyester yarn which was used for floor mops and for the microfibre cloth that was launched in the 1990s under the name of the Miracle Cloth.

47. Modern mechanics

When the spinning mill in Rydal was built in the middle of the 19th century, the United Kingdom had abolished the ban on exports of textile machines. The company’s first machines could thus be ordered directly from the UK. English-made machines dominated in the factory for a long time and were gradually substituted for more modern models.

Most of the machines in the spinning hall today are produced by the Swiss company Rieter. From 1941 and until the early 1950s, the Rydal Company placed several big orders for top modern textile machines with the Swiss.

48. Hazardous

Several machine deliveries from Switzerland were carried out through Europe in the midst of the raging World War. The machine parts were shipped via Sassnitz on the German Baltic coast to Trelleborg and then by rail on to Kinna.

In the shipping documents, it is clearly stated that the sender accepts no liability for any damage or transport impediments that may arise due to the war.

When most of the new machines had been assembled on site by the end of the 1940s, Rydahls Manufaktur AB was one of the most modern textile companies in Europe. Despite this, the English carding machines from the 1890s were kept and used for about 100 years.

49. What happened next?

In 1985, Rydal’s museum opened in parts of the factory building. Ten years later, the museum moved into the spinning hall. The spinning machines that still remained were transferred to the museum’s collection.

To be able to show every stage of the process of manufacturing yarn, a few machines from other sections were moved into the museum’s premises. The other machines were disassembled and sold.

At that time, the production at Rydals Garn was still running. The museum’s activities and the yarn production continued side by side until 2004, when the company was shut down. Since then, the museum has been working to tell the story of the spinning mill in Rydal and to keep the historical heritage of the textile industry alive.

Rydal’s Museum is an industrial museum run by Mark Municipality. Thanks to the preserved machines, the visitors can experience how yarn is made. The yarn from Rydal can be bought in the museum shop.