This company was created in 1897 by the merger of George Crompton's company (created in 1851) and LJ & FB Knowles company (created in 1856). They created and sold looms that manufactured every kind of textile fabric.

Interestingly enough, the Loom Works survived in Worcester until 1980, when it closed and relocated somewhere in the South.

My great-grandfather, Bradley Nickles worked for this company until 1899, when he became the inkeeper at the Exchange Hotel in Worcester. Mr. Nickles was an expert in the area of motion of the looms. He did a large amount of work for Crompton at the World's Fair.

C&K is still alive with Hqs in Connecticutt- has over $1Billion dollars worth and is one of the largest chemical companies in the world. It just moved from Worcester. We own the home where Mrs. FB Knowles lived and Mr. Hogg lived. He purchased the first Crompton mills.

My great-grandfather, Frederick V. Townsend, was a foreman at this mill until he died in 1929. His second wife, Annie, also worked here until her son "Jim" was born. Several of their children and other relatives worked there as well. My grandmother Dorothy and her husband Vern were both born nearby (Vern's father worked at C & K for a while as well).

I have a number of forged wrenches that I got from a member who's father had died and they were cleaning out his basement. They are stamped "CROMPTON & KNOWLES LOOM WORKS" or simply "CROMPTON & KNOWLES"

I am an employee with the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlor located at 838 Main St. in Worcester, MA. I do not know if you are aware of this, but this funeral home is the former home of L. J. Knowles.

I am the daughter of the Last George Crompton (although the family was no longer involved with C & K when I was born.) Had I been a boy, I would have been George Crompton 4th. Instead, I'm Marie. For the curious, here is the family geneology. http://www.stars-end.net/bryants/gsbdetail15.html#I1_553

Another interesting and UNUSUAL fact......Crompton & Knowles also manufactured the Sherman Duckpin Pinsetter machine.

my grandfather now ownes 100 grand street which is one of the crompton and knowles buildings. It is in good shape however the other buildings (93 & 95 grand St.) are vacant and in bad shape and i expect to be taken down in the neer future.

one of those looms made it to Nova Scotia, Canada.It is now all set up in our workshop and still fully functional. What a beautiful piece of machinerie and history. We would love to use it again and we wonder if there is anyone out there to provide us with a manual for the fine tuning of shuttle and beater sequence before we smash the last of our shuttles.

My great grandfather was a foreman at Cromton Knowles until his death in 1924. They had a picture of him on the wall in the Worcester, MA building and I was wondering if anyone knows what happened to those pictures, I'd really like to have my great grandfathers picture if possible.

My Dad worked in the power plant at CK comp. He used to bring me to work every Saturday while he tended the boilers and plant. He used to give me hair cuts in the boiler room !

We still have two working C&K weaving looms of about 1968 vintage at our textile plant in Australia. One is a 650" / 16.5m loom while the other is 500" / 12.7m loom. Both are in constant use weaving and are also utilised to teach basic weaving to new weavers. I found the dobby prone to frequent breakage given the weight of the cloth type being woven, similar to very strong macrame yarn and the dobbys were ultimately replaced with kaiser head motions which have proven completely reliable with no breakage since installed about 20 years ago.