As far as I can tell, we had two early steam engines in Barlick, one for certain at Clough Mill and possibly one at County Brook. At about the same time I think there was one at Bracewell's Old Shed in Earby. All made possible of course by access to economical supplies of coal. Old Coates installed an engine shortly after and in 1843 William 'Billycock' Bracewell built an entirely new combined mill in Butts. He followed that with his New Mill, afterwards renamed Wellhouse Mill in 1854. Unfortunately, due to Bracewell's rapacious business methods he smothered any further development in the town, including having a hand in his cousin's failure at Old Coates Mill, until his death in 1885. There was one exception, Slater Brothers at Clough survived and prospered.
This first phase of mill building triggered associated house building and Bracewell was one of the promoters of the branch railway line to Barlick. However, at his death in 1885 it transpired that his firm, Bracewell and Sons, already damaged by the premature death of his most able son, William Metcalfe Bracewell, was grossly over extended and collapsed when the bank called the loans in. This was a severe blow to the town but eventually was to prove its salvation because other capital holders combined, embraced the latest business, building and engineering methods perfected in Lancashire and founded two Shed Companies which built new mills specifically for letting out to tenants on a Room and Power basis. This was so successful that by the end of the 19th century, their tenants were building their own mills and Barlick exploded in a new burst of prosperity, investment and development.
By the start of the Great War in 1914 Barlick was, apart from the post WW2 housing estates, essentially as we see it today. The town had modern water, gas and sewage services, new roads and housing and a rail connection. It was supporting a population double the size of 1885. Retail shops and services flourished and we had caught up with the rest of the industry with the advantage that being a late starter meant that the new mills were totally modern.
Nothing lasts for ever and we can now see that after the first world war the textile trade entered a long period of decline and by 1939 many mills had closed. The unlikely rescuer of the town was Adolph Hitler as his aggression and the bombing of major manufacturing centres further south triggered the Shadow Factories and an aviation industry that is with us today.
That's the end of my gallop though the history of development in the town. I hope I've alerted you to the factors that drove us from a few incomers seeking shelter thousands of years ago to what we enjoy today. I never tire of telling the story and the next time you hear someone boasting that their town is over a thousand years old because of a stray mention in the Domesday Book, point out to them that Barlick is older than the Pyramids!
Sheds like this and the workers were the foundation of modern Barlick. Gwen at Bancroft in 1977.
