Handloom Weavers todmordenandwalsden

Piece Halls (Cloth Halls)
Taken from  bradfordhistorical.org.uk
So marked was this increase that in 1773 two merchants and seven stuffmakers, acting on behalf of their fellows, promoted the building of the first Piece Hall in Bradford, followed in a very few years by a second, associated hall. In these halls, the first containing 100 stands on the lower floor for subscribers as well as space on the upper floor for non-subscribers, and the second containing a further 158 stands, manufacturers could expose their goods for sale. Previously they had either used rooms in their own houses, or, if they lived outside Bradford, had rented stands in a room at the White Lion Inn.  Alternatively they could have attended Wakefield where the Tammy Hall was opened in 1766. A Piece Hall was erected at Colne in 1775 and at Halifax in 1779. The woolstaplers who organised much of the worsted trade were unable, individually, to suppress the various frauds and embezzlements practised against them, and consequently a Worsted Committee was established in 1777 to control such activities. Four Bradford men were on the first committee and its first chairman, John Hustler, was a Bradford man who had been prominent in the fight to establish it.

Addingham Piece Hall addingham.info Bradford woollen history thisisbradford.co.uk Bradford Wool Exchange ngfl.ac.uk   brianlambert.btinternet.co.uk  Colne Piece Hall viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk Halifax Piece Hall piecehall.info Tammy Hall Wakefield wakefieldtoday.co.uk  A cloth hall was built at Heptonstall in 1545-1548 by the Waterhouse family of Shibden Hall and called Blackwell Hall after the London market of that name. bbc.co.uk  calderdale.gov.uk

Life of the Industrial Worker in Ninteenth-Century England victorianweb.org

There is a rough drawn map at the foot of the page CLICK HERE showing some of the mills. More detailed maps showing the location of some of the mills can be found HERE

In the 1870's Keighley had 70 mills.

Even back then woman were making their way, Ann Illingworth, Miss Rachael Leach, and Mrs. Betty Hudson built and operated textile mills.

MILLS
Acres Mill Started life as a machine shop, Berry Smith converted it. Hartley Merrall haworth-village.org.uk

Airworth Mills, (nicked named screw mill) rebuilt in 1808 Financed by Samuel Blakey.  John Greenwood was one of many that took rooms here. John later moved to Cabbage Croft. H Clapham & Son

Bank place  William Lund,

Beckstones Mill

Brandy mill William Robinson.

Bridgehouse Mill, Haworth.

Browend Mill, Goose Eye. J Brigg

Calversyke Mill.
Briggs Sold to Joseph King 1893

Cabbage croft mill at the junction of the Worth and North Beck. John Greenwood  & Sons Greenwood also built Vale mill at Oakworth.

Castle mills built by Joseph Smith. Castle Mill was Sold to Joseph Driver in the late 1700's  in the 1800's. Wm Wilkinson . & Son - James Judson  & Co. Worsted Spinners - Abraham Sugden  & Co.

Dalton Mill Dolton Lane
The first mill on the site was owned in the 1780s by Miss Rachael Leach, who lived not far away at West Riddlesden Hall. Spinning cotton was her business. She employed as manager a man named Dalton , and as he was the person the workers, customers and suppliers had to deal with, the mills took his name. So did the lane on which it stands. Miss Leach was described (by an 80-year-old former mill-worker to a historian around 1849) as "a bold and masculine sort of woman". She had her problems with the neighbors at Low Mill, a little further up the River Worth which provided the power source. The owners attempted to divert the flow of the river round Dalton Mills, so rendering Miss Leach's water-wheel redundant. She took them to court and won. Later sold to William Clayton  thecravenimage.co.uk it had a look out tower built round it's chimney.


Damside Thomas Parker untll 1806. Betty Hudson gave up in 1807. John Williamson ,

Damems mill built by the Ropers one of four mills owned by the  Wright Brothers

Eastwood Mill, owned by Ickringill of Balcony House, Oakworth Rd.  He had his own brass band. When the mill caught fire in 1956, it was owned by Robert C Franklin. Eight workers died in the fire, their escape thwarted by a locked door at the bottom of the fire escape. thisisbradford.co.uk

Ebor Mill, Haworth.
  Hiram Craven sold to Edwin Merrall. Photo haworth-village.org.uk
keighley.plus.com

Fleece Mills, Keighley's biggest mill built by William Sugden, boasting gas lighting and it's own fire engine.
Mr J W Midgley, spinner, Fleece Mills, Keighley has sent a big parcel of wool weighing 10lbs. to be a knitted by the schoolchildren into comforts for soldiers haworth-village.org.uk  Mr Foulds was a director of the Keighley Fleece Mills Co Ltd for 44 years, from 1885, and chairman for 39 years until his death in 1929. Mr. Charles Coulton Wrathall of Langdale, Thornhill Road, Steeton He was for several years in business on his own account at Fleece Mills, Keighley.

Fell lane mill  Joshua Robinson ,

Griffe Mill, Stanbury. Hollings & Ross in one half, Thomas Lister the other half. Photo haworth-village.org.uk

Guard house John Brigg ,

Goose Eye Mill
John Bottomley of Holme House, Richard Shackleton of Green Top and Thomas Shackleton of Truewell Hole, ( was later to be called hall, but was never a hall)


keighley.plus.com

Greengate Thos Thompson .

Greengate Mill: Benjamin Marriner  & William Heald Yarn Makers

Greengate Mill (west) Greenwood

Greengate Mill (East) Craven &   Brigg   Later passed to William Corlass, John Cravens son in law.

Grove Mill, Ingrow. Owned by Illingworth and rented to John & Robert Clough, later  Illingworth sold to Robert  Clough  in 1822 John Clough lived at the mill house. Photo keighley.plus.com  Fire Photos Keighley.plus.com  msnusers.com

Hattersley's George. Loom Makers (for silk, worsted, cotton & flax)  hattersley.co.uk  thisisbradford.co.uk

Workers outside Hattersley's premises

The notice on the door reads: "Applicants for employment in this establishment should apply to the Board of Trade Labour Exchange".

Workmen like these were soon to become involved in the long and bitter Keighley engineers' strike, which lasted for more than three months in the summer of 1914 and was only ended by the outbreak of the Great War.

George Hattersley and Sons managed to keep a fairly low profile in the press coverage of the strike, issuing a statement that May explaining that they were "not members of any Masters' Federation and shall only deal direct with our own strikers. A large majority of our men have intimated to us that they have no grievance and are anxious to resume work. If they do so they may feel assured of our support."

However, as two months later their windows at North Brook Works and Cabbage Mills were among those of several firms to be broken by strikers, this seems to have suggested a rosy view of the situation.

Newsholme Higher and Newsholme Lower Mills. Robert Hall of Church Farm. When  Newsholme Higher Mill closed.  later it was to be used for the manufacture of bobbins — hence the popular name of the Bobbin Mill.

Hey gardens Butterfield Brothers,

Higher Providence Mill, Oakworth. Bought by James Haggas for his sons, William and John. 1825,  sold  to Hiram Craven.who went into partnership with William Sugden.   James Mitchell had it for a few years until it was bought by George Hattersley and Sons in around 1860. Only the chimney remains.

Holme Mill built in 1816 by Thomas Binns

Holme Mills has been making paper tubes since 1892, when John Stell moved his Keighley business into this "substantially-built worsted mill, with very valuable water power" beside the North Beck.
A disastrous fire  described as "the most spectacular blaze in the district for many years" occurred early in 1945

Holme House Mill Richard Horsfall. W Lund

Hope Mill was one of the first steam powered cotton mills to be built in Keighley by Thomas & John Corlass in 1800. J Mitchell. J Feather. The mill was taken over by John Mitchell for worsted spinning.

Hope st James Cousin ,

Hollings Mill, Haworth. Merrall's. Mrs Merrall ( mother of the Merrall Brothers) lived at Low Hollings. Now a dewlling.

Holme mill  Mills & Hargreaves

Ingrow Corn Mill. Lodge Calvert a joiner was using the mill, he changed over to spinning.

Ingrow mill John Clough ,

King st  Berry Smith ,

Knowles Mill (formerly Heatons of Keighley)

Lees Syke Mill, (Merralls) Cross Roads. Photo of fire haworth-village.org.uk

Lower Providence Mills, Oakworth. Built in 1806,  by Mr. Leach, for John Sugden and James Hey.  Later known as Jonas Sugden and Ross. Jonas was a  Methodist preacher Bought by George Hattersley and Sons shortly after Higher Providence Mill. Demolished 1984 apart from the chimney and cottages.

Low mill Low Mill had been an early base for the Craven family. In the 16th century they were yeomen or gentlemen farmers living in Laycock. (Taken from J. Hodgson, pp 212-213) Part of a complex of mill buildings, others now demolished, which was important in containing the first cotton mill in Keighley. The original mill building was begun by the Ramsdens of Halifax and completed by Clayton and Walshman from Lancashire who began cotton spinning in June 1780. The machinery was made under the direction of Sir Richard Arkwright. Since the cotton-spinning process was new to this area a number of employers were sent to Arkwright's works at Cromford, Derbyshire, to master the techniques involved. . In the C19 the mill was converted to worsted. Clayton William & Son Cotton Spinners. John Craven

Low Bridge Mill
Built by James Fox taken over by John Ellison. Look for the three carved stone heads built into the chimney. malcolmhanson.co.uk

Low Street Mill

keighley.plus.com

Lumb Foot Mill, Stanbury. Wright Brothers. James Wright lived at The Whins. Now in ruins.

Marriner's Mill at Greengates  Mariner B. & W.  had it's own brass band which was formed in the 1840's. Edward D.A. Marriner of Greengates Mill, Keighley - magistrate, councillor and, in 1885, Mayor of Keighley. There was a family feud between Benjamin's two sons, Edward & William, which led to a division of the mill Marriners' Yarns

Mytholmes Mill, Oakworth. Merralls.

North Brook Mill 1782 John Greenwood This mill was proberbly where George Hattersley & Sons built thier mill

Oakworth Mill. (Lane Ends Mills) Oakworth. Built by James Mitchell 1837  bought by James Haggas in 1860

Ponden Mill, Stanbury
Robert Heaton of Ponden Hall. Ponden Band was around in 1854. They played at the celebrations in Haworth at the end of the Crimean war.

Prince-Smith & Stells Silver Band (Keighley) Active in the 1950s

Prospect Mill one of four mills owned by the  Wright Brothers. 1920 Messrs Hey and Co at Keighley Parish Feast, they treated their employees to a nine-day tour of the Great War battlefields in Belgium and France in a charabanc.

Providence Mill viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk

Rag Mill (Paper Mill) at Goose Eye

Sandywood Mill Once a house owned by John Oldridge then converted in to a mill, which reverted back to a house in the 1800's

Springfield Mill Oakworth Road.  Built in 1870s by  James Collingham, bought in 1879  by  Messrs Smith and McLaren.  When Walter SB McLaren withdrew from the partnership, Sir Swire Smith carried the business. Wolseys' hosiery manufacturer Wolsey Ltd  until the 1960s, then Johns Craft, and now used by the  Keighley Furniture Project    ngfl.ac.uk  dobsongasket.com

Spring head  Bailey Thomas, Worsted Spinners. W Haggas

Spring Head Mill, Oakworth Joseph Greenwood after his death taken over by Mr. Merrall

Stubbing house (also known as Airworth, but Airworth might have been a differnt building), Built by Calvert & Clapham,

Turkey Mill.


Vale Mill, Oakworth. Built around 1785. Bought by Jonas Sugden in 1844.
The mill was owned for many years by Rouse Bros. of Halifax. Dances held in the canteen were  popular.

Walkers Mill (Old Fulling) Was replaced by Walk Mill

Walk Mill
Joseph Craven's grandson John took over Walk Mill in Keighley. Craven & Briggs. Craven John & Joseph. keighley.plus.com

Wood mill, Laycock, John Shackleton sold in 1810  . Thomas Waterhouse,

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Mill Life oxenhope.webspace.fish.co.uk

Weaving maggieblanck.com What life was like before and during the industrial revolution.

Life on a hill farm oxenhope.webspace.fish.co.uk

Other Industries

Albert Steele: Stanbury's New Laithe Reservoir, navvy thisisbradford.co.uk

Speak's Work Wear

Keighley Gas Works

Happy days of good horses and good pals From: Frank H Yardley, Queens Road, Ingrow, Keighley.

J Pridden of Keighley Watch maker late 1800's

Watson & Whalleys Eagle Iron Works


Shoemakers, Bootmakers,

Cobblers and related occupations 1851

Wm. Sellers & Co, Airedale Works, Lawkholme Lane. Manufacture of sewing machines  between 1854 and c1924.  By 1875 the Company was producing up to 15,000 sewing machines a year, these included the Stitchwell, Seamstress and various Industrial machines based on the Howe and Thomas designs. By 1881 the Company name had changed to Wm. Sellers & Sons, the Company diversified producing knitting machines, bicycles and washers. sewmuse.co.uk

Keighley National Shell Factory in Dalton Lane thisisbradford.co.uk

Life maggieblanck.com An over view of life and trades.

Albert Payne 58 Dalton Lane
Coal Merchant

Keighley's coal mining industry.
Mines were worked in the area for at least five centuries with the last one closing in 1932. There is a book called Keighley Coal Written by Mike Gill  thisisbradford.co.uk  Stanbury Coal and Lead Mine
For centuries coal had been mined on the Morton side of the River Aire. Seventeenth century records describe the mining of coal on the East Riddlesden estate by the Murgatroyds and, as late as the nineteen twenties the Brigg family were mining at Morton Banks. The Starkies took little interest in their Keighley property and Leach may also have obtained the lease to the East Riddlesden coal mines which his family had later.

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Taken from yorkshirepost.co.uk