Monument record HAD 051 - Duke Street

1996: Documentary search revealed details of establishment of factory on site in 1820s. This may have been as a method of Poor Relief. This factory may have been, and certainly became, Brown & Moy's silk mill works by 1834. This was associated with a specially constructed gas works, which was in existence by 1836 and lit the town streets up to 1853 (gas works appears to be much further to N and separate on the 1880s - 1920s OS mapping!- see HAD 094).
The factory was taken over in 1869 by Cooke, Sons & Law, makers of coco fibre mats until the late 1950s. Details in (S1)(S2).
Mapped as cocoa nut (and choir) matting factory on 1880s and 1900s and 1920 OS maps.

November 1996: Evaluation by trenching of former Dawson Clark & Co Ltd site, revealed light scatter of Med features towards Duke Street frontage. Further to W built up ground masked any potential features. Details in (S1)(S2).

Recorded in gazetteer of significant Industrial Archaeological sites extracted from a 1980 booklet entitled 'Industrial Archaeology in and around Norfolk' and revised as 'Suffolk IA Sites in 1980' in Suffolk Industrial Archaeological Society Newsletter (SIAS Newsletter, 115, Nov 2011) where it is described as:
Coir-matting factory, Hadleigh. Solid workshops with large windows and heavy buttresses to take the weight.
Bob Malster adds: Demolished, replaced with old peoples' housing.