THIS TAPE HAS BEEN RECORDED ON AUGUST 8TH 1983 AND IS A CONVERSATION BETWEEN NEWTON PICKLES AND STANLEY GRAHAM AS THEY WALK THE WATERCOURSES CONNECTED WITH LOTHERSDALE MILL IN LOTHERSDALE VILLAGE ABOVE EARBY IN THE WEST RIDING. WE HAD BEEN ASKED TO ASSESS THE SITE IN CONNECTION WITH A POSSIBLE HERITAGE BID BY THE OWNER JUNE BARROW.
This is the second tape on August 8th. This is Newton Pickles and Stanley Graham at Lothersdale water wheel and we've just been having a hell of a performance with the wheel.
Newton, on the end of the last tape we were talking, we were walking down the other side of the wheel and we were looking at those cast iron guide plates down the side. Now since then, I've been down into the bottom and we were right, there is a complete cast-iron guide... oh God knows what you call it - but it fits right up to the wheel.
R - Well it's an extension of the penstock and it fits right up to the wheel. It would make it more economical as far as water were concerned. It doesn't just run to waste.
That penstock, originally would have some... You could see some of the boarding left on it, it's been boarded down to the top of where the cast iron starts. The cast iron starts at 90 degrees on the wheel. If you're standing looking towards the mill, at 9 o'clock on the wheel, that cast iron starts and it's a beautiful job, it goes right the way down to the bottom to 180 degrees on the wheel almost. As near as I can see, it gets down to within ½ an inch clearance of that wheel. What's jamming the wheel at the moment is that piece of timber has dropped down and lodged in it, it's dropped down into the bottom and something's lifted it up. Whether it's water falling on it or what, but somebody's tried to turn the wheel and it's picked the end of the piece of timber up and it's tried to go back under the guide plate with the bucket going inside the guide plate and the piece of timber going on the outside and it's bent the bucket down.
R - And it's jammed it?
The only way it can be freed now is to turn that wheel until that bucket gets up to that platform next to the little door so that you can knock it back and it is a new bucket. The problem I can see from there is that the wheel's unbalanced and before you can get that bucket up to that platform I think the wheel’s going to set off going round the other way so I think if anybody was doing it, what they'd have to think of doing was having a piece of scaffolding pole or something like that about that they could put it through the wheel.
R - Not necessarily. If I were shifting that I'd have a good look round and see if I could put two blocks up, one at each side. Pull one up and lower the other. It's like stripping a fly-wheel on a mill engine. When you start taking segments out you can get yourself 20 ton out of balance and that's what you had to do. You had to have powerful blocks at each side to lower and lift.
If you put a wooden pole through, it would just knock the wooden spokes out.
R - That's the best way to do it, two pair of blocks. You've full control of it then. Pair of half ton blocks would be quite sufficient.
Reason it's out of balance is most likely because of the fact that a lot of buckets are missing.
R - A lot are missing, a lot are still on. It doesn't take you long to get an odd ton out of balance you know. If that sort of weight starts moving, it takes some stopping.
That wheel wants re-bucketing.
And backing and all
R - Aye, it wants re-bucketing.
(50)
(What sort of buckets would you put on?)
R- Well tin ones.
(Would you coat them with anything?)
R - Just paint them. Paint them with bitumen paint.
Down at Quarry Bank they're using some special tin there. It isn't stainless but it looks like ...
R - It's part stainless.
They reckon they're going to use that because it won't corrode. At least it'll corrode very slowly.
R - Like a model boiler I got with some in at Earby and I tried it on a magnet and it still is stainless. Part quantities are stainless.
But anyway, the stuff - because they were talking about using fibreglass at one time but they decided not to use it.
R - But like I say, they were made like they are and look how long they've been in. They'll see our time out and somebody else's besides.
(Those new buckets that have been put on?)
R - They're galvanized. That's okay you see. They'll be all right galvanized.
(Oh I have got all those in the back room ready)
R - Let's have a look at them then.
We're just going to have a look at the buckets now.
Them buckets we've just been looking at in theer what are they like, are they all right?
R - They're excellent, they're all new buckets. Somebody's made them buckets that knew what they were doing. He’s made 'em before for it. They just all want putting on, new bolts and bitumen painting as they're put on. You could just do the edges where you can't get to 'em. Just a daub of paint.
But you're going to have to get to do the wood first.
R - Two inch brush up
Put the wood on first. Paint the wood with bitumen paint. I say, it's going to have new wood put in.
R - Ah well, they can all be painted at same time.
I say, you'll have to do 'em one at a time; you can't take 'em all out.
R - No, no, no!
So you just take one out and put a new one in - wood and bucket. Paint it at same time and keep working round like that.
R - No need to go mad at it. Could put half of 'em on. Put half of them on, stagger them. Could put them on every six or every ten. Keep your wheel running and do 'em when you could.
Good to tell where you are now - we're in't boiler house. There's the flue.
(5 min)
R - Here you are, you're into the connies.
Aye, you’ve got connies in all right.
(We might be able to get this open)
It'll break off. It wants tapping with a hammer – here. Here, Newton, look here. Shafting along the wall theer. Hey, is this firebox, hold on, it can't have been.
(100)
That's been the drive for the connies. That's been the drive for the scrapers on the connies.
R - Scrapers on the connies, course it has.
(I'm going to ask you a very layman question or a child's question 'what makes a chimney smoke?' Okay, a fire)
R- A Fire
(Now this is the boiler house where the fire was. Now explain that because I don't understand how that fire got...)
What you've got here, you're standing in the wrong place. You're standing in the wrong place. You ought to be stood at this end. Look at that, look at that old steam trap. What you had in here - I don't think it was a Lancashire, Newton. I'll bet it was a Cornish.
R - It isn't big enough for a Lancashire. It's been a Cornish boiler.
You've had a Cornish boiler in here. What you've had in here is like a cylindrical boiler about 20feet long with one fire hole in the front. All this floor here is new because all this floor is dug out and underneath you had a fire in the front, no, that's just an inspection pit, it's just for a garage, you had a fire in the front here and it went back through a tube in the boiler. Mr. Pickles is now freeing the connie door. Newton's just opening the connie door. Anyway we know it's a connie because apart from it saying it in the book, it's got Green's of Wakefield on it and there was only two firms made connies and Greens were one of them.
(What was a connie?)
Economiser. An economiser was a nest of cast iron tubes that your flue gas went round and it heated your feed water for your boiler and the reason for having it was, every 11 degrees you raised the temperature of your feed water to your boiler you increased the efficiency of your boiler by 1% so that means every 100 ton of coal you burned, you saved 1 ton. You can raise your water from 60 degrees to 300 degrees probably, so you're saving a hell of a lot of coal. Under this floor here would be flues.
Because when your smoke went through your boiler, it went through the boiler, down at the back under the boiler to the front and then split and went up the sides of the boiler and then it either went to the chimney or it went through the economiser. You could suit yourself which way you sent it. Those brackets on the back wall as we're facing the back wall are the drive to the scrapers on the economizer because there were scrapers that kept the tubes clear of soot and er - hang on, Newton's getting mad with this door. He's going to open it. Try shutting it first. Top one’s free.
R - Engine's been a long way from the boiler house, Stanley.
Yes, a long way. Come here where I can hear you. The engine's been right up the other end from the boiler house.
R - Aye, because it's been an addition has this boiler house. There's been another boiler in somewhere at sometime before this.
I think that that one, that other boiler's been somewhere near where that other, that new one is now. Anyway, these economisers, what I said about the connies being capped off is right. I've just had a look on to there and what they've done they've had a little hut over the top of the economizers where all the gear was, scrapers and safety valve and all the rest of it and it was a fair height, it was about six foot higher than it is now because you've got to have room to get in and work on top of the connies. And what they've done, they've taken that top off and just concreted it over the top. When the connies went out of business, because those connies have just wasted away. What they've done instead of putting new connies in, they've just roofed over the top of that to make it smoke tight and just left everything how it was and that's why its full of soot in the bottom because it's been wafting soot into the bottom because that damper's not been shut there. The damper into the chimney bottom is jammed and wants freeing at the top before you can open it.
(150)
It wouldn't be so bad in the step at bottom but it's in a bearing at top and it's completely rusted up. Bottom of the chimney looks all right. You can see past it and there's not a lot a stuff at bottom. All there is in the bottom is what you'd expect to see. There's no stones so it's in fairly good order inside and it's dry in there. It's dry in there, it's a dry flue and it's all in your favour.
(10 min)
The flue itself goes away from the bottom of that chimney, the main flue goes away down there. It goes down towards that other...
R - Boiler house.
It looks to me as if that's where the boiler's been, the Cornish boiler. This flue sets off from here and it goes across this back wall and in fact if one of you lads will just go into that old boiler house there and just take notice where you hear thumping on that wall. Just go into that old boiler house and take notice where you hear me knocking.
(200)
This is recorded afterwards because we didn't put the tape-recorder back on again. What I did was go back down the flue and have a look down that flue again and when I got to the far end I knocked on the wall so that the lads would know where I'd got to. The flue goes back down, sloping downwards and when I went down into it I thought that the roof of it had fallen in but then I had a bit of a look round, it wasn't that, it was rubble that the builders had thrown in, whoever had demolished it. And the downtake from the back of the boiler is still in and from the look of it I should say it's a Cornish because the size of the downtake isn't really big enough for a Lancashire boiler. If it was it was a very small Lanky. There's definitely been a boiler there in the place where the package boiler is and the back end of it is where the oil storage tank is now. The back wall of the bund to hold the oil if it spills out is only about a foot in front of the original line of the back wall of the downtake. The downtake's still left in. There are some of the cast iron roof plates and the flags are an insulation over the back of the flues at the back of the boiler. Taking it all in all, what Newton and I saw on the Monday when Newton and I were there, you've got a very interesting set-up, you've quite obviously got a range of buildings, different building times. The part of the building where the engine beds are is the - I should say - the oldest end. I think that's where the original wheel's been.
Now that's always been a fair sized wheel there. When I say a fair size, a fair diameter wheel because what you've got there is not a very big flow but certainly a very big head.
(15 min)
Even when it was just built. The levels must have been just the same when the first goyt was put in to the corn mill. They couldn't be much lower than that because of the shape of the land, you know the depth of the bank on that side where the low dam is. It wouldn't be possible to have a mill race much lower than that. Now that suspension wheel, obviously the wheel that's in there now is a later wheel and I've no doubt is bigger than the original wheel. You've always had quite a big wheel in there. Now one of the things that I should mention that isn't on the tape is that we went looking for the tail race. Now just like Quarry Bank down at Styal, the tail race goes down a long way from the mill. When I say ‘goes back’ I mean it goes downstream away from the mill. I didn't pace it out because I didn't actually see it because I wandered down the beck so far and got fed up and went back up and went right underneath the mill. June and Newton went further down and actually found it and it's about 250 - 300 yards from the mill. So it's been a long tail race and quite evidently when they've put that wheel in, that 40' wheel, they've gone down and they've taken that tail race, that wheel pit bottom, down lower than the level of the beck to get more power out of that wheel.
(250)
Exactly the same as they've done at Quarry Bank - exactly the same. Again in common with Quarry Bank you've got the engine in, there's been a beam engine in there which as we were saying which looks from the Wilson's history as though it was a Roberts engine. I've no reason to doubt that, and certainly it would be quite feasible because Roberts were making engines down in Nelson about that time. Then you've got the transition from the beam engine helping the water wheel to a horizontal engine. I don't know whether the horizontal engine was helping the water wheel or whether the horizontal was just running the mill on its own. On the whole, I should think that it was running in tandem with the wheel at one time.
Now Newton and I were trying to puzzle something out while we were down there. If you think back while we were talking on this tape. We were trying to puzzle that gearing out because the gearing was all wrong.
There was something very peculiar about that gearing. It obviously wants a lot more investigation but what I think you've got there is the very large gear that comes out of the wall inside the house, alongside the wheelpit where the horizontal engine was.
(300)
I think that is the original wheel connecting the beam engine to the water wheel and the gearing was going straight through from the pinion shaft, straight down into the mill. That's why that engine was mounted further upstream in relation to the beck than the horizontal engine was. They wanted to keep the engine out of the way of the line of that shaft. I'm fairly certain that if we did a really thorough investigation there and measured up where those mounting bolts are and everything in the floor, we’d find out that that beam engine was mounted on the upstream side of the lineshaft onto that large gear wheel which is mounted on the pinion shaft coming from the wheel and ran in tandem with the wheel. Now Newton says, because Newton was telling me going down the road (Newton agrees with me about that - we were puzzling it out going home) and Newton says that very often they didn't bother taking the engine out of gear but left it in gear with the wheel because then it acted as a governor on the wheel. So that as the wheel slowed down, the engine put power into it and as the wheel speeded up the engine shut down and acted as a brake on the wheel, in other words it regulated the wheel. Now that's very important if you're driving a textile factory because the nearer you can keep your speed to the optimum speed, the better your production.
So what we've got, we've got the water wheel and we've got the gearing that went with the old engine, the beam engine, still on that shaft, and it will be interesting to have a very close look at that gear and put some dates on it. If it's the same age as the gear at the back, the pinion, well it will be the same age as that.
(350)
We'll probably be able to date the original wheel and ensure that that date in Wilson's book's right because of the construction of those pinions. Then you've got another set of gearing there that's set up which are straight cut gears on a more modern pinion and it looks to Newton and me as though that is the second motion gearing that came off the horizontal engine that was in there.
(20 min)
And then when the horizontal engine's been done away with, that's just been left in there and the shaft's been cut off because they'd go onto electric drives. They'd do away with the shafting all together. The interesting thing is, you've got the whole progression in the engineering side of the place, in the prime mover side of the place. There must certainly have been a water wheel in there before the large suspension wheel that's in now. Then you've got - we're not certain about whether there was a beam engine in with the original water wheel. You've certainly had a completely new wheel put in and then you've had a horizontal engine put in and you've gone onto electric drive so apart from the turbine, it's a pity that there hasn't been a turbine in at some time, but that is the obvious thing to do there is to put a turbine in that pit. Apart from the turbine which you haven't got, you've got every step in the progression of power that was ever used in a mill in this part of the country present at Lothersdale. The building's just as exciting. The piece of wall that's been knocked down just out of the weaving shed into what was originally the outside wall of the old building shows this quite clearly, that the outside wall that was there and the door that goes into the boiler house, you’ve got the outside wall there of the original building that was
put up or that was in place there before the new weaving shed was put on. Now it all wants researching and it wants dates putting on all of these things.
(400)
I should think that there's enough evidence there for us to be able to confirm any dates that we can get from the documents and get a full picture of the building of that mill. As I say, I went up through the beck right underneath the mill and it's all in very good condition under there. There wouldn't appear to be any problems whatsoever under the mill. It's stone-arch construction all the way. There's an opening on the left hand side as you're going in - oh about 25 yard in, which I suspect is the outlet of the bywash or overflow at the headpond at the end of the launder. They'd have to put one in there, in fact I think you're walking over the top of it when you're - if you remember when Newton and I were walking down the side of the goyt and we got to the head pond and I said to him we are walking over a spill way here. Because it was all grown over but there was something there and they'd have to have one. If you got a surge down there and you could get a surge when you shut the water off for the wheel when the water's all flowing down. The momentum of the water flowing down the race piles it up at that end. It's not serious but it would run over and could do nothing but damage either to the banking or if you got any quantity going over, down into the buildings themselves.
(25 min)
So I rather think that that hole that's down there will be the outlet for that spill way and the head pond. The whole exercise I think of going up there with Newton was quite successful. What we've come up with is the fact that there's certainly enough water coming out through the high dam and spilling away through the beck to run that wheel for any purposes that's needed to run it for.
(450)
There wouldn't seem to be any insuperable problem apart from finance in getting that water from the high dam to the low dam. I'm sure that the best way to do it is to put a pipe from a small catchment at the top end of the high dam following the beck right the way down to the bridge, under the road through the bridge and then climbing up the wall and over into the low dam.
Before that's done, rather than just take hearsay from people, it might be a good idea to make sure that the water course from the high dam to the low dam was cut in the thirties when they put that sewer in. It would be a good idea to get onto the County and see if they have any plans of what actually went on there because if it were possible to put a pipe through from the high dam underneath the road and then down the side of the road into the low dam that would be a cheaper way of doing it than going down the side of the beck because you need a lot less pipe. Also because of the levels involved there’d be a lot less pressure on the pipe because you wouldn't have thirty foot head on it at the far end and where it came from under the bridge and climbed up the wall to go into the dam. It’d need over the years a lot less maintenance and would need to be a lot less heavy pipe when it was put in.
(500)
If we're talking about doing that, we're not talking about using the high dam as a reservoir, what we're talking about is a shorter route for the pipe to get to the low dam because it could come out through the wall of the dam, possibly even through the pipe that’s there but it would be interesting to dig down to that outlet on the high dam.
Either rod it or shine a light up it or whatever but find out if there is a blockage in that pipe. If you could get through there that’d be a marvellous way of getting water through to the low dam. Once you got it to the low dam, no problem. That's very easily cleaned out. It actually wouldn't even need cleaning out if you were just going to use the flow to turn the wheel as opposed to taking a lot of power out of it because you wouldn't need any big supply of water in there. It would be better if it was cleaned out but there's certainly no need to do. If you get a flow of water going through it that’d be all right, that’d be enough to spin your wheel. And then the goyt wants cleaning out and that head pond and all that gearing made right. The sluice gate out of the low dam in the goyt wants a worm and pinion putting on it, it all wants digging out and cleaning out and making sure that it works and the sluice on the launder.
(30 min)
The sluice gate on the launder, all that wants going over to make sure it's in good order and then the launder itself, I don't think needs a lot doing to it.
Really you're into - there doesn't look to be a lot wrong with the end of the launder where the vanes are. Now once you get to the wheel, you want to make sure that spill way, the top of that spill way on the head pond looks as if it's fallen in. That wants putting right. These are all fairly simple things. The big job is the wheel.
(550)
Now as Newton pointed out the other day, the first job to be done to the wheel is to get the wood chocks into the pedestal bearing to make sure that that it can't move. That's not a big job, it wants the casting cleaning out first and then some chocks making to fit and then wedging in. What we're talking about then is the renovation of the wheel. I don't like the way that a few new spokes have been put in the wheel and others haven't and my recommendation would be that that wheel isn't used until all the spokes in that wheel are renewed. That isn't really a big or a skilful job. Once the spokes have been made it’s a fairly simple job. Take all the old ones out one at a time and put new ones in. That really wants doing first. Now while that's being done the wheel's got to be turned to get at the spokes.
The way to turn the wheel is if necessary insert two girders in the wall, put them cross-ways in the wall across the pit at the right point to be able to hang off two - they want to be at least five ton blocks, and turn the wheel with those five ton blocks by slacking one out and pulling the other in. Nobody should attempt to turn the wheel backwards, the wheel should be turned in the direction which it would have turned if the water was running into it. The reason for this is that one of the buckets is fouling the cast iron guide way underneath the launder and if you put any pressure on it to turn that backwards it's possible that you could break that guide way. That would be a tragedy because that's in beautiful condition. So the wheel has got to be turned forwards. That is the way it would have rotated if water had been falling into the buckets. In other words when you're going through the small door into the wheel chamber from the mill, the buckets should be rising in front of you and not going down. That's very important. Once the spokes have been done it’s really a very simple job. Careful measurement will show what the size is. It wants enough pieces of timber cutting to go into the bottom of the wheel of the right size and they really do want to be of the right size because they are the members which hold that wheel, which maintain the shape of that wheel.
(600)
I don't know but I have an idea that every now and again there's a cast iron plate in there, a cast iron plate or a steel plate across. These act as a spacer but the timber acts as, the timber is largely the main structural member in that wheel on the rim that's holding it the right distance apart and hence holding the gearing true. Those all want replacing but you don't try and replace them all at once, you don't try and take them all out at once and then put new ones in.
What you do is put one new one and one bucket in, one new one and one bucket and work round the wheel and do it slowly right the way round. It’s a long job because God knows how many buckets are on it. Did we say 153? I've forgotten. It's a long job but that's the only way to do it. Whilst it's being done all the cast iron work, the wood and the buckets themselves should be done with really good bitumen paint. And that wheel will get very badly out of balance while that's being done of course because you're adding weight at one side and you're not adding any at the other because the new wood and buckets will be heavier that the old rotten wood, the rusty bits left in. Once you've done that and you've gone right round, your wheel is in good nick. There's no need to worry about it. Those tin buckets are quite adequate. No problem at all. They're quite adequate, as Newton said - that was what they used in the first place so why worry?
(650)
He's quite right, there is no worry. That's what the old fellows used that made the wheel. As for putting these cast iron buckets on that the engineer said. Forget it! God knows who it was that said that but he should never be let anywhere near a water wheel. If you fitted cast iron buckets round the exterior of that water wheel and ran it it’d collapse inside three months - it couldn't stand it. It’d be adding fifteen to twenty tons to the weight of that wheel. We're talking about a very lightly built suspension wheel that's built like a bicycle wheel and it relied on design, not massive construction, to hold it together. The idea of putting cast iron buckets on just makes me cringe. Really that's as far as we want to go you know as far as the power train is concerned. There is of course the question of the tail race. It would be a good idea before we go any further to find out whether water does get away down that tail race. Now there is some talk about it being collapsed in one place. That might be a serious thing if you were trying to run it under power but its not necessarily so serious if you're just trying to run it for demonstration purposes because there won't be that weight of water going down the tail race. It’d be a good idea to get the goyt cleaned out, get some water in the low dam by shutting it off and open it up and letting that water run through there if possible. If necessary diverting it past the wheel because you don't want that wheel to turn actually because you don't want it to turn until you've got that bucket right. Find out if that water will run away. If it'll run away - all well and good. As long as that wheel isn't wallowing at the bottom all well and good, no problem. There are no major technical problems with that wheel. What there is is a lot of expense but there are no major technical problems.
There is one major recommendation which I'd like to make, and I'm sure that Newton would agree with me. He's not with me at the moment obviously because this is later. It is that when there is any question or any discussion about what methods should be used to do any part of the work on that wheel like replacing buckets or the wood and lining up the gearing and anything like that, in every case my recommendation and Newton's as well would be that the same methods that the old millwrights used be followed.
(750)
Now, there are two reasons for that. The first reason is for authenticity, it's important that we should put things how they were in say 1930 with that wheel when it last worked. The other reason is of course is that those mill wrights that did those jobs on that wheel knew what they were doing and we must have confidence in them. They knew what were the best materials to use, the cheapest, the most durable material.
All right there are different materials nowadays to that there were then, the old engineers if they were alive today might have used different materials but we're dealing with an artefact that was made of cast iron and was built according to the engineering knowledge of the time so for authenticity lets go for those methods now. Also as a matter of getting it right. If you like we've got a text book there in that wheel that tells us if we do certain things we will be all right. Like using those buckets that you've got, those tin buckets instead of cast iron or fibre glass or any modern material. All right we know they're going to go rusty but they're going to last us out and there's nothing wrong with re-bucketing the wheel again at some time. The same with the spokes. Let's get as near to what they used as possible. Actually, I don't think we can get what they used. I don't know what the new ones are but originally they'd used Memel pine, Baltic pine. It'll still be possible to get it but it'll be expensive in lengths like that. It's worth going for. Use the same materials that the old millwrights used and the same methods.
(40 mins)
We wouldn't go so far wrong and we'll have it authentic. We're very lucky in that we've got people like Newton. We've got firms like Varleys at Skipton that can still make anything that you need for that wheel and for the gearing on the sluice gates, things like that. They'd only be too pleased to do something like that because as Newton said they were probably the people who did the last contract on it anyway. In any research that's got to be done on the wheel, that's one of the first things that's got to be done, we've got to go to Varleys and talk to Douglas and find out if they've got any records of the work they did on it.
(750)
Knowing a firm like Varleys, they've probably still got it there in the books. So that's really the major recommendation. let's go with what we've got and use the same methods the old mill wrights would have used.
We're very lucky because it looks as though the gearing is in very good condition. We might find that there are problems when we start turning it over and running it with it in gear. You know, like bolts being eaten up and rusted. We might start getting segment rings coming loose or something like that. We've got to accept that but if they do, do something about it. Do what the old mill wrights would have done. Use the same methods, as Newton was saying, pack down on wood. Newton knows how to do it and Varleys will still know how to do it down at Skipton.
(800)
So I'll finish this tape here. It's all been very worthwhile I think and I hope that whoever listens to this tape and has any decisions to make about that wheel gets something out of it. There's certainly a lot more investigation to be done down there but it's a very interesting plant that's had a lot of money and care spent on it and a lot of thought's gone into the design of it. It would certainly be a great shame if that was lost. It's not really too highly assessed to say that that wheel's a National asset.
I think that when a proper plan is drawn up we should go back to the Dof E and to the Science Museum with that attitude and point out to them that this is something we've got to pull some stops out and by that I mean, I think there's a very good case with that wheel, especially when all the history of it's worked out, when they can show their method of progression from one prime mover to the other, there's a very good case for putting that wheel back just how it was in say 1930 or even earlier. In fact I could see a very good case for putting an engine in. Not necessarily to run but to show how it was all coupled up together.
Thank you very much.
This cotton mill was built on the site of an earlier corn mill in 1792. The firm which build and ran the mill, Chippendale, Parker & Co. had the following partners: Thomas Parker Thomas Chippendale, Skipton, Dr Wigglesworth, Cononley, Edmund Spencer, Cononley, Richard Croasdill, Marton Scar. They insured their property for amounts in 1793:
Cotton mill including water wheel £700
Machinery £500
Stock £300
In 1795 the total insured value was reduced to £1,000. The partnership was dissolved in June 1798 and Thomas Parker was able to buy some of his partner's shares. Parker married Dr Wigglesworth's niece and their daughter married a John Wilson from Scotland who took control of the mill and later, in 1835 changed over to worsted spinning. Part of the mill is still used for textile purposes and, although added to over the years, retains many of the features of an early mill complex.
[Extract from Yorkshire Cotton by George Ingle. Carnegie Publishing. 1997.]
SCG/03 September 2003
6,695 words.