Industrial development

The year of 1841 had special importance for Červený Kostelec. A factor of a Prague firm Leopold Abeles came to the townlet. Abeles began his own factory enterprise – he built a warehouse, starch factory, drying chamber and mangle soon followed by a mechanical cotton-spinning workroom. With Abeles, the cotton came to the town and pushed the linen production definitely aside to the second position. The modern spinning mill was built in 1873. It employed 300 weavers and for Abeles worked another 600 local ones. To the profile of the textile production in Kostelec added a fabric dying as well. The first dyer began in 1837; forty years later, there were 16 dye-houses. In 1860 the firm Just, started operation. Since 1864, it fully concentrated on dyeing and modifying the fabric. For Kostelec began a completely new phase of its development. It quickly changed into an industrial centre. To its becoming an industrial centre also contributed a construction of the railway Jaroměř – Svatoňovice, completed 1859. Another factor, which was favourable for the development of the industry, was the closeness of coalmines. To the end of the 19th century, another factories were built in the town: Theodor Keyzlar`s dye house and finishing mill, J. Vondra`s weaving mill and Stejskal`s weaving mill, the weaving mill Střihavka and Švejda, two brick factories and Dominik Klatovský`s foundry and machinery works in Stolín. The J. Doležal`s printing-works was established before the World War one as well. The number of drapers, most of whom employing local weavers, was rising quickly. That was the way the textile tradition of Kostelec has originated. In 1889, there were more than 40 textile producers, 84 drapers and 312 workers manufacturing textile in the factories. The number of traders and sellers of other professions rose markedly – their number reached almost ninety.