From Silk to Care
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If you've ever visited our office on Green Street, Macclesfield, you might have noticed something a little out of the ordinary. There's a skein race in the corner, shuttles for paperweights, a framed poster tells a story that stretches back over a hundred years. And the walls themselves, if they could talk, would have quite the tale to tell.
Because we don't just work in any office. We work in a converted silk mill. And the history of that building is woven, quite literally, into everything we do.
A Mill Born from Macclesfield’s Silk Legacy
Green Street Mill has its roots in 1910, when John Mottershead, a tackler in a local silk mill, founded John Mottershead & Company Limited. Starting out in rented premises at Frosts Mill on Park Green, the business initially produced woven mufflers for miners. As times changed, so did the product: the company moved into collars, ties, and silk squares for the South African market, before eventually settling into weaving Macclesfield's famous silk long scarf ties.
In 1928, the business moved to our current home on Green Street.
The mill survived the Second World War by adapting brilliantly, weaving naval arm bands, cap ribbons and black naval squares when a Coventry factory was bombed by the Luftwaffe and demand outstripped supply. After the war, the business reinvented itself again, moving into specialist ties for schools, colleges, sports clubs and corporate clients, weaving for names like Stage Coach and Securicor.
In 1990, Managing Director Dorothy Ratcliffe made the bold decision to modernise, replacing the old Smith looms with six rapier looms capable of weaving six colours at greater speed. The mill's finest hour came in 2002, when it won an order from Mulberry to weave linings for their range of handbags and suits, its best year ever for production volume.
A Family Legacy, Re-imagined
Dorothy Ratcliffe died in 1999, and the mill passed to her son, John Ratcliffe. John is one of our directors, and inherited not just a building, but a piece of Macclesfield's industrial soul. The silk industry, facing fierce competition from overseas manufacturers, eventually wound down. But John never let the building lose its spirit.
Instead, he transformed Green Street Mill into something new. In 2015, Ablewell Care moved in, bringing warmth, purpose and people back into its walls. The loom that once wove silk now sits proudly in our office as a reminder of where we came from. The shuttles, the posters, the textures of the old mill? Even the wages safe! They're all still here, telling the story of generations of Macclesfield craftsmanship.
The Thread That Connects Us
It might seem an unlikely home for a home care company. But when you think about it, the connection makes perfect sense.
The silk industry was built on skill, precision, dedication and community. Generations of Macclesfield families worked in mills like this one, looking after their craft and looking after each other. That's exactly what we do, just in a different way.
Our care team work out in the community, across Macclesfield, Congleton and Sandbach, supporting people in their own homes every single day. They come together at the mill for training, meetings and catch-ups, grounding themselves in a space that carries real meaning. And whether they're here or out on the road, they carry the same values that filled these walls for over a century: reliability, adaptability, and a genuine commitment to the people we serve.
We think Dorothy would approve.
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