| The function of the rewinding department was to transfer the thread from bobbins onto springs. These springs were called “cheeses” throughout the Mill. The springs were wrapped in white paper (this was carried out in the rewinding department). The springs were placed onto the head of the machine, the head rotated at a fixed speed, which pulled the yarn from the bobbins and laid it onto the spring. There were small and large bobbins, if you were using the small ones it took about four to a cheese. The big ones were usually about one bobbin per cheese.
The thread ran through a clearer, these were two metal discs set at a fixed distance apart. If any faulty thread passed through the clearers (large knots or tangles) it would be caught in the clearers, which would snap the thread allowing the fault to be rectified. We used a hand knotter to join the pieces of thread together. The two ends of the thread would be inserted into the knotter, the trigger pulled and the yarn would be joined using a weavers knot. Some of the thread had to be knotless and this meant that the yarn had to be spliced together. This was carried out by separating the strands using a small pair of scissors and a splicing board. We separated the strands on each end of the thread and then twisted the ends together. It was a difficult skill to learn, but became simple once you learned how to do it.
We had to ensure all the cheeses we the same size. This was checked using wooden gauges, which were flat pieces of wood with a semi circle cut from them. You knew the cheese was the correct size because it fit perfectly into the gauge. When they were the correct size we put them into a barrow. There were sixty cheeses per barrow, once the barrow was full they were weighed and sent to the Dyehouse.
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