Burley Woodhead Mills
History of the textile mills at Burley Woodhead.
Research by Alun Clark (BLH&AG) (Draft)
Research by Alun Clark (BLH&AG) (Draft)
Taking a walk to Burley Woodhead along the footpath that follows the Carr Beck from Burley in Wharfedale you pass some buildings to the left as you cross the footpath to Menston and following the Beck up the hill southwards to Burley Woodhead you look to your left just before you reach the village and notice some ruins. You look closer and see a derelict mill chimney and some outlines of walls. Just above the ruins you see a silted up reservoir with broken sluice gates. You cross the footbridge over the stream and just to your left you notice what could be some former weavers cottages.
You are now curious, what has been going on here in the past?
You consult the oldest maps you can find and the 1851 Ordinance Survey 6 inch to the mile map shows three named mills and a fourth unnamed mill to the North where the first buildings were seen.
The 1847 tithe map supplies some further information about two of the mills and a combing shop. The most southerly mill is called the Spinning Mill and is owned by a Mr Powell and occupied by Benjamin Wigglesworth, the next mill and weavers cottages going back down the Beck is Myrtle Grove Mill owned by Ebenezer Lister and occupied by John Padgett. The combing shop is owned by John Metcalf and occupied by Charles Lund and others but these five cottages no longer exist. The two mills further North don’t pay tithes so no further information is available.
You consult the oldest maps you can find and the 1851 Ordinance Survey 6 inch to the mile map shows three named mills and a fourth unnamed mill to the North where the first buildings were seen.
The 1847 tithe map supplies some further information about two of the mills and a combing shop. The most southerly mill is called the Spinning Mill and is owned by a Mr Powell and occupied by Benjamin Wigglesworth, the next mill and weavers cottages going back down the Beck is Myrtle Grove Mill owned by Ebenezer Lister and occupied by John Padgett. The combing shop is owned by John Metcalf and occupied by Charles Lund and others but these five cottages no longer exist. The two mills further North don’t pay tithes so no further information is available.
The Burley Local History & Archive Group archive room supplies a raft of information compiled by members over a number of years. There are references to maps, census returns, insurance returns, newspaper articles and a numbers of books including trade directories.
These sources establish that the oldest mills are the Spinning Mill and Myrtle Grove Mill and the unnamed mill is the Rombalds Moor Bleachworks. The only mill in operation by 1889 was the Rombalds Moor Bleach works which ceased operation in 1927.
These sources establish that the oldest mills are the Spinning Mill and Myrtle Grove Mill and the unnamed mill is the Rombalds Moor Bleachworks. The only mill in operation by 1889 was the Rombalds Moor Bleach works which ceased operation in 1927.
The two earliest mills were running by 1795 and were insured by Henry Marshal and William Lister. They were both initially cotton spinning mills. The entrepreneurs would have been attracted to the area by the streams that ran off the moors, the closeness to the Menston Ilkley Turnpike road and coal supplies at Baildon.
The Spinning Mill was probably a Jenny Mill. It had a reservoir above the mill the water from which would have powered the waterwheel which was housed in the narrow building to the West of the Mill. The mill has now been converted into two cottages. George Ingle in this book Yorkshire Cotton suggests only the two carding engines were run by power. He also attributes the advertisement of the mill to let in the Leeds intelligencer of 28 April 1800 to this particular mill. However the sale notice mentions 26 acres of land adjoining the premises so this would more likely suggest Myrtle Grove Mill. There is no trace today of the reservoir, shown on the 1851 OS map, which served the waterwheel. It is not known when this mill ceased operation.
The next mill you notice travelling North is Myrtle Grove Mill. Unfortunately this mill no longer exists. The mill was originally built by Henry Lister and Francis Popplewell sometime after 20/21 September 1792 as a cotton mill. The next concrete information we have about this mill is from the Tithe Map and Apportionments of 1847. At this time the Mill was owned by Ebenezer Lister and tenanted by John Padgett. The mill and three cottages lie to the North of the Menston to Ilkley road. The mill is part of a tenancy that includes Turnpike house, cottage, dam, Manningham and 25 acres. There is also a further dam on the track from Green Lane to the former Stocks House. The three cottages opposite the mill were weavers cottages.
A reminiscence recorded in the Shipley Times of 1924 mentions a Mr JL Peate busily “slubbing” on a “Billy” just inside the door of one of the cottages. A sale notice of 1859 mention Myrtle Mill by name and details the sale of a spinning mill with waterwheel, three cottages, a farmhouse, barn, outbuildings and 25 1/2 acres. This sale notice states that the mill had formerly been a corn mill but this would seem unlikely. In November 1866 we come across a conveyance of Myrtle Grove Mill from James Walker, a farmer, to Thomas Peat who is described as a Woollen Cloth Manufacturer in the 1861 Census Return. This conveyance is just for the Mill, Waterwheel, workings and fixtures together with the three cottages and the immediate land together with the dam and reservoir. There is no mention of the farmhouse and farmland. There is a separate indenture between Thomas Peat and Joseph Hargreaves who has land next to the mill land.
A reminiscence recorded in the Shipley Times of 1924 mentions a Mr JL Peate busily “slubbing” on a “Billy” just inside the door of one of the cottages. A sale notice of 1859 mention Myrtle Mill by name and details the sale of a spinning mill with waterwheel, three cottages, a farmhouse, barn, outbuildings and 25 1/2 acres. This sale notice states that the mill had formerly been a corn mill but this would seem unlikely. In November 1866 we come across a conveyance of Myrtle Grove Mill from James Walker, a farmer, to Thomas Peat who is described as a Woollen Cloth Manufacturer in the 1861 Census Return. This conveyance is just for the Mill, Waterwheel, workings and fixtures together with the three cottages and the immediate land together with the dam and reservoir. There is no mention of the farmhouse and farmland. There is a separate indenture between Thomas Peat and Joseph Hargreaves who has land next to the mill land.
By 1889 the OS map states that this mill is disused. Unfortunately this mill was dismantled in 1897 and two houses were built on the site using the stone from the original mill. The cottage nearest to the beck was built on unstable ground with poor footings and the owners of the other cottage incorporated this property to make a single dwelling. Parts of the old waterwheel are still located in the mill stream. The weavers cottages have been made into two dwellings with some evidence of their former use preserved.
The next mill to the North following the Carr Beck is Hargreaves’ or Middle Mill. This mill immediately captures the imagination with its large silted up reservoir dam and sluice gates together with the Mill chimney and ruined mill walls. The Mill building size can be plotted using the outline of the existing two foot wide walls and the remnants of the roof etched into the chimney wall. The housing to the east side of the chimney still contains some of the iron from the broken water wheel.
The mill dimensions of 22 yards by 12 yards and using a floor height of 9 to 10 feet giving a 2 floor building with an attic. The walls of the mill were 2 feet thick and some outlines of doors and windows can be detected. The 1851 OS map shows a second group of buildings slightly to the North and East of the main mill building which housed cottages and possibly some workshops or storerooms. Census returns for 1861 shows that one cottage was occupied by a bleacher and two were unoccupied. The first concrete indications of what is happening at these two lower mills comes from the DT Jenkins’s book The West Riding Wool Textile Industry 1770-1835. The returns of the Yorkshire Woollen and Worsted Mills included in the 1835 Factory Returns show that Benjamin Baldwins’ Mill was operational in 1822 and Miss Hargreaves’ Mill in 1828. He also references W Cudworth’s Histories of Manningham, Heaton and Allerton. In Cudworth’s book we are told that a Mr James Ambler was engaged by Miss Hargreaves, a sister of Joseph Hargreaves, and a very active business woman, to manage a little worsted mill which she ran at Burley Woodhead. A newspaper report of 24 March 1833 stated that the partnership between M Hargreaves and J Ambler was dissolved.
The mill dimensions of 22 yards by 12 yards and using a floor height of 9 to 10 feet giving a 2 floor building with an attic. The walls of the mill were 2 feet thick and some outlines of doors and windows can be detected. The 1851 OS map shows a second group of buildings slightly to the North and East of the main mill building which housed cottages and possibly some workshops or storerooms. Census returns for 1861 shows that one cottage was occupied by a bleacher and two were unoccupied. The first concrete indications of what is happening at these two lower mills comes from the DT Jenkins’s book The West Riding Wool Textile Industry 1770-1835. The returns of the Yorkshire Woollen and Worsted Mills included in the 1835 Factory Returns show that Benjamin Baldwins’ Mill was operational in 1822 and Miss Hargreaves’ Mill in 1828. He also references W Cudworth’s Histories of Manningham, Heaton and Allerton. In Cudworth’s book we are told that a Mr James Ambler was engaged by Miss Hargreaves, a sister of Joseph Hargreaves, and a very active business woman, to manage a little worsted mill which she ran at Burley Woodhead. A newspaper report of 24 March 1833 stated that the partnership between M Hargreaves and J Ambler was dissolved.
It would appear that this mill was probably bought by the Hargreaves family in 1828. A sale notice for the sale of Ive House, a Worsted Mill, 24 1/2 acres and 13 cottages suitable for work people was advertised in the Leeds Intelligencer on 25 September 1828. The owner at that time was a Mr Thomas Corlass who had a bankruptcy order against him. We know from the 1841 Census that Hannah Hargreaves was living in Ives House, as head of household, with her four children her stated occupation was farmer. A mill was advertised as to let in the Leeds Intelligencer on 3 May 1856. It was described as suitable for a Worsted Spinner or Cloth Manufacturer. The mill has a first rate waterwheel, Steam Engine and Waterwheel. It is said to be occupied by Messrs Padgett. On 10 September 1857 a dispute over dilapidations between Hargreaves the owner of the mill and Padgett the tenant of some time ago was settled in the sum of £13 8s 3d with the claimant demanding £50. John Padgett is also mentioned in relation to the Bleachworks Mill and Myrtle Grove Mill. The next reference to this mill is contained in a sale notice in the Wharfedale & Airedale Observer on 10 July 1885 when Mrs Hargreaves is selling her house and land together with a building formerly used as a Woollen Mill and 5 unoccupied cottages immeadiately adjoining together with the mill dam. A further sale notice was posted in the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer on 21 June 1890 mentioning this mill as a building formerly a Woollen Mill with a dam and reservoir with 3 cottages near thereto and vacant. The suggestion that this could be converted into a dwelling house with pleasure grounds. A further mention is made of this mill in a Mortgage Deed between William Gill and Charles Watson. The mill is described as a former woollen mill with 5 cottages and a dam. It would appear that the mill ceased to operate some time before 1885.
This now brings us to Rombalds Moor Bleachworks which has more of it’s original buildings still standing. There is extensive information about the period when the property was a bleachworks under the ownership of Joseph Gill and Sons. Both Jack Kell’s - Menston Remembered and Alastair Laurence’s - A History of Menston and Hawksworth have detailed information, photographs, plans and sketch maps to supplement the description and history. The whole section of Alastair Laurences’s Book dealing with the Bleachworks is copied in full in the appendix together with copies of plans and photographs from Jack Kell’s book. (Contact the Burley Archive for details).
This now brings us to Rombalds Moor Bleachworks which has more of it’s original buildings still standing. There is extensive information about the period when the property was a bleachworks under the ownership of Joseph Gill and Sons. Both Jack Kell’s - Menston Remembered and Alastair Laurence’s - A History of Menston and Hawksworth have detailed information, photographs, plans and sketch maps to supplement the description and history. The whole section of Alastair Laurences’s Book dealing with the Bleachworks is copied in full in the appendix together with copies of plans and photographs from Jack Kell’s book. (Contact the Burley Archive for details).
Further research has been able to shed more light on it’s earlier history. The memorial of the mortgage taken out in 1897 by William Gill of Joseph Gill and Sons has provided a link to early sale notices and a conveyance related to a Benjamin Baldwin. There are also references in the document to the former owner William Popplewell and his tenant Jonas Booth. Jonas Booth was declared bankrupt as noted in the Manchester Mercury of 20 March 1820. It would be reasonable to assume that Benjamin Baldwin purchased the mill shortly after this date as the sale notice in the Leeds Mercury of 29 July 1826 states that this mill is a new erection and had been used as a cotton mill and was now used as a worsted mill. The mill had a dwelling house, warehouse, stabling and 5 cottages contiguous to the mill. There was also farmland for sale with the mill and the closes of land mentioned were Cockshott Top, Cockshott Bottom, SunHag Top,Bracken Fold and The Spring. This same land can be traced to the bleachworks through William Gill’s Mortgage Memorial. There is a conveyance assigning the mill etc to Farrar Williamson, bankers of Ripon from Benjamin Baldwin in 1826. The mill was tenanted by James Ambler from Manningham who was also in partnership with Miss Hargreaves at the Hargreaves’ Mill. The sale notice in the Bradford Observer dated 15 September 1836 states that Messrs James Ambler are the tenants. This mill had been expanded for it now has two waterwheels, two dams and a steam engine of 10 horses power together with nine cottages, a dwelling house, stable, carriage house, wool storage, combing shop and other outbuildings. Most significantly the mill is warmed by steam and some preparations for a gasometer are commenced. The OS 25 inch to the mile map of 1893 shows the Rombaldsmoor Bleach Works with a Gasometer confirming the link. A further sale/Lettings notice appears in the Leeds Mercury of 28 April 1838 for this mill with William Farrar , banker, of Ripon being the owner. John Padgett a Woollen cloth manufacture is mentioned a number of times in relation to this mill, Myrtle Grove Mill and Hargreaves’ mill so we can assume from all the documents and census returns that he was active in the area in the 1840s and 1850s. An 1861 Trade Directory mentions George Ambrose Stead as being at the Bleach Works, Burley Woodhead. A partnership dissolution between Mr GA Stead and Mr W Garrs at Burley Woodhead Bleachworks is noted in the Newspaper and shortly after a death notice for Mr Garrs. The change to the bleachworks was commenced by Stead and Garrs and carried on in 1871 by Joseph Gill and Sons of Headingley, Leeds. Detailed accounts of the Rombalds Moor Bleachworks are documented in Alastair Lawrence’s and Jack Kell’s books.
The labour force to man these mill was accommodated in the various cottages and farmhouses in Burley Woodhead. Occupation descriptions contained in the various census returns from 1841 onwards illustrate the varied textile trades that were carried on in the village. Woolcombing was carried on by 24 residents in 1841, 30 in 1851, 6 by 1861 and just 1 by 1871. There were 9 different trades mentioned in 1841, 25 in 1851 and 14 in 1861. By 1861 there were 13 bleachers of woollem yarn and a foreman and this had fallen to 8 and a foreman by 1871 and 7 and a foreman by 1901. The foreman lived in the Manager’s house at the bleachworks and the other workers occupied the 5 cottages located just to the south of the mill reservoir. There were no people employed in the bleachworks from Menston according to the 1861 census but by 1871 there were 15 and 35 by 1891. A road link was established to Menston called bleach mill lane and superceded the earlier track linking the mill to the Woodhead Road. This track is clearly shown on the 1895 OS map with earlier trackways linking the mill as less defined tracks. There are extensive remains of the bleach works buildings still in existence. The boundary walls of the main site are still in good condition. The remnants of the pipework to and filtration tanks can be identified in the field to the north of the well preserved boundary wall. The position of the chimney can be identified by the flue which linked to the boiler house.
The Tithe Apportionment map of 1847 records Woolcombing shops established at the terrace of five cottages at Whin Hill. Various census returns record woolcombers living in these cottages until 1871.
The only evidence of these cottages today are some mounds in the field at the top of Whin Hill.
The various newspaper advertisements of mills to let at Burley Woodhead confirm that owners generally preferred to have tenants to run the mills rather than take the risk themselves. There are a number of recordings of bankruptcies related to Burley Woodhead enterprises. In the 1820’s and 1830’s Jonas Booth, Benjamin Baldwin and Thomas Corlass are cited in the Gazette as being business men declared bankrupt from Burley Woodhead. It would appear that most of the entrepreneurs who invested capital in the mills were from outside the area. Henry Lister who was involved in the Spinning Mill and Myrtle Grove Mill was from Addingham. William Popplewell was from Cowhouse, Bingley and Farrar Williamson were bankers from Ripon. Newspaper articles relating to Burley Woodhead record drownings in the mill ponds and various industrial accidents at the bleachworks and local quarry.
The only evidence of these cottages today are some mounds in the field at the top of Whin Hill.
The various newspaper advertisements of mills to let at Burley Woodhead confirm that owners generally preferred to have tenants to run the mills rather than take the risk themselves. There are a number of recordings of bankruptcies related to Burley Woodhead enterprises. In the 1820’s and 1830’s Jonas Booth, Benjamin Baldwin and Thomas Corlass are cited in the Gazette as being business men declared bankrupt from Burley Woodhead. It would appear that most of the entrepreneurs who invested capital in the mills were from outside the area. Henry Lister who was involved in the Spinning Mill and Myrtle Grove Mill was from Addingham. William Popplewell was from Cowhouse, Bingley and Farrar Williamson were bankers from Ripon. Newspaper articles relating to Burley Woodhead record drownings in the mill ponds and various industrial accidents at the bleachworks and local quarry.
The textile mills of Burley Woodhead would have been thriving industries in the early to mid 1800s but these small scale enterprises would not have been able to compete against the massive more efficient mills that grew up in the Leeds and Bradford areas.
Research by Alun Clark (BLH&AG) upto May 2023.
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