The wool mill was built by the Zignone brothers in 1878, in the Vallefredda area, a short distance from the confluence of the Scoldo stream with the Ponzone torrent and near the Biella-Borgosesia provincial road. The business was initially run by Pietro, Giovanni and Carlo. When Pietro died in 1891, only Carlo continued to run the business, but, alone, he was unable to get beyond 1896.
In that year, the factory was rented to Anselmo Giletti, who installed a spinning mill there to serve the important Ponzone complex. In 1900, Carlo Zignone died, leaving behind Felicita Tonella as a widow and ten orphaned children. Only in 1912 did the brothers Umberto, Oreste and Rinaldo Zignone regain possession of the factory and form a partnership with the Ferla brothers, owners of the homonymous wool mill in Polto.
After the partnership with the Ferlas ended in 1918, the Zignone brothers independently managed the company under the name "Lanificio Fratelli Zignone fu Carlo".
The flood of 1927 caused serious damage to the factory and in 1931 Umberto Zignone died. Oreste and Rinaldo restarted production in partnership with their collaborators, such as the designer Ugo Rista and the sales representative Armando Garlanda. "Zignone Garlanda & Rista" was dissolved in 1937. In 1949 Garlanda also left the scene and once again the brothers Oreste and Rinaldo, and their nephew Ermanno, son of Umberto, returned to managing on their own with a promising start.
The 1950s, however, were a difficult period and many small companies could not keep up: this also happened to the Zignone brothers' wool mill. In 1966, the entrepreneur Carlo Beretta purchased the Vallefredda buildings without however resuming the activity.
In 1991, Carlo Beretta donated the industrial complex to DocBi-Centro Studi Biellesi after, in 1984, what had by then become the "Fabbrica della ruota" had hosted the exhibition "Industrial Archaeology in Valsessera and Valle Strona", tracing the path of the association and anticipating the new destiny of the former Lanificio Zignone.
Today, the "Fabbrica della ruota", a lively cultural center, is included in the ecomuseum system of the Province of Biella. Source: municipality of Pray