Fulling Mills.

[Wendyf]

I was searching the Thornton-in-Craven parish records last night for any evidence of corn millers in Earby, to try and establish when the Earby mill was working. I found a few baptisms of miller's children up to 1811 but two fathers in the period 1713 to 1726 are described as "Fuller-Miller".
After a bit of Googling I discovered what fulling was and that it had moved on from when the homespun cloth was being trampled in vats of stale urine to a process using a water mill. See this BBC CLIP.

I'm left with a lot of questions which I'm hoping someone can answer!
Would the process of corn milling & fulling use the same water wheel as power?
Did individual weavers bring their cloth to be fulled before taking it to sell in places like Colne or Halifax, or would fulling be part of a more organised system?
Were there other fulling mills in the area?

[Stanley]

Big subject Wendy..... Fulling is the process of mashing open weave woollen cloth in a mild caustic, usually stale urine. This turns the natural oils in the wool to soap and allows the scales on the individual threads to slide over each other, the yarn contracts and tightens the weave. Very similar to what happens if you was a wool garment in soapy water which is too hot.
In water powered fulling mills the wool was pounded by large wooden hammers in specially shaped 'stocks' activated by cams on a shaft driven by a water wheel. I renovated the stocks at Helmshore and they are still working.



The usual genesis of water powered fulling mills was for them to be built in woollen districts to cope with the increased quantity of cloth as early as the 15th century. (There could have been earlier monastic fulling mills.) There was at least one at Colne as early as this. Occasionally a corn mill would be converted. I know of no fulling mills here, cloth was taken to Colne to be milled. The fulling mill usually processed cloth for individual weavers or more likely clothiers who bought the cloth in the raw state and fulled it before selling on. I know of no mill that ground corn and fulled and I doubt it ever happened, entirely different trades.
Much more to it than this. A good clue to a fulling mill that has vanished is a field name that includes 'tenter', for instance 'tentercroft'. this was the process of stretching the fulled cloth to size after fulling on wooden frames with 'tenterhooks'. Keywords for a search are 'lant' (stale urine), tenter, fulling or a later process, rotary milling of woollen cloth.
One LKF. Urine was collected from houses who stored it for the mill to use. The urine from Methodist households was regarded as superior because they didn't drink beer so it was more concentrated.

[Wendyf]

Thank you Stanley that's very interesting. So the description "Fuller-Miller" for my two Earby inhabitants probably meant that they ran a fulling mill rather than doing both fulling and corn milling? Would you say it was possible that there was a fulling mill in Earby from this evidence in the parish records?
I found evidence in the baptism records of a Robert Greenwood being a miller in Earby between 1758 and 1761 and Francis (or Franky) Harrison between 1797 and 1811, so the corn mill was operating up till the early 19th century.

[Gloria]

There was a fulling mill at Catlow Bottoms between Colne and Briercliffe. There are two articles on www.briercliffesociety.co.uk under The Sugars of Catlow 1885 and also Catlow Mill.... Put either into the search box. John Clayton did research there with interesting results.

[Wendyf]

Fascinating stuff Gloria. We are hoping to get John to come and give us some advice on how to start looking at the landscape using LIDAR, so this is yet another subject to ask him about!

[Tripps]

Is 'fullers earth' in any way connected with this topic? I seem to remember it was used in the military in connection with chemical warfare, to be patted onto, and absorb the nasties.

[Gloria]

Are you getting him to do a talk to your Society?

[Wendyf]

Yes Tripps, I believe that it was used to clean the wool together with the stale urine.

[Wendyf]

Are you getting him to do a talk to your Society?

No Gloria, I have asked him to come for an informal chat with a few of us who are interested. We haven't arranged anything definite yet.

[plaques]

I suppose using stale urine for fulling is no worse than using urine from pregnant mares for HRT (hormone replacement therapy )

[Stanley]

'Fuller Miller' most likely means someone who used machinery to full woollen cloth. Probably a mistake to associate it with corn-milling. If there was a fulling mill nearer than Colne I have never come across it.



Helmshore was a relatively large fulling mill. The nearest machine on the left is the later rotary mill, faster and cheaper to run. The box in the right foreground is the slate tank into which the lant was tipped through a window from the yard. The lant carrier had a barrow that had a large tank on it suspended on a pivot.
Have a look at this LINK for some good images of Helmshore.

[chinatyke]

Slightly off-topic, but when I worked at Loveclough Printworks one of the bleaching ranges was called "the old dung range." I was told that before enzymes were available commercially, cow manure was used for desizing and contained natural enzymes. Loveclough works also had 'tenter' fields but as far as I know it didn't process woollen fabric and these fields were used for drying cotton fabric. Maybe it processed wool in the olden days, same as Helmshore which isn't too far away.

[Tizer]

Whitebirk, on the edge of Blackburn, got its name from the fields where cloth was hung out to bleach. In the days before chorine-based bleaches became available one of the methods was to use buttermilk to aid bleaching.

[elise]

Fulling mills also known as WALK mills. Guys who trod the cloth in vats of urine called WALKERS which is where we get the surname WALKER from.
A mill in Colne called Walk Mill on Green Road used by Hills Premier Polymers. Also a fulling mill in Skipton.

[Stanley]

China, liquid spring cow muck was used in plaster as well.

[Wendyf]

I've learnt so much about the early woollen industry in the last couple of days, and feel that a visit to Helmshore Textile Museum is a must!
I'm still left wondering about the possibility of a fulling mill in Earby. It seems unlikely that Jonathan Binns and William Robinson, both giving their occupation as fuller/miller over a period of 13 years, travelled to either Colne or Skipton to work.

[Stanley]

I agree Wendy.... The problem may be that it was very small......

[Stanley]

I had a furtle in the index.... Here are some notes I have of entries in the Court Rolls of the Honour of Clitheroe, Volume one.... (Transcribed by Doreen Crowther....)
p. 482. A reference to the extent of the Manor of Colne in 1323 mentions a fulling mill in the manor with an annual value of 14/-.
p. 486. Reference to a fulling mill in Worston, 1311. Annual value 6s/8d.
p. 493. Fulling mill at Colne 1422/1423. Value 6s.8d. Also a tenter yard at Walk Mill.
p. 495. Roger Banestre cited as owner of Colne mills.

Other references.
Burnley fulling mill was worth 5/- per ann8um in 1311. (De Lacey Inquisition of 1311)
There was a disused fulling mill at Feazor, Waddington. Bought by Thomas Taylor in 1792 and converted to a cotton mill.

Looking through the research there are vague clues that there may have been another, very small water mill downstream from the cornmill at Earby. Nothing definite, all I can say is that if there was one, it is almost certain it wasn't grinding corn in competition with the main mill. Sorry I can't be more definite. The strongest hint is that Joseph Cowgill and William Harrison who were cotton manufacturers had 'a small mill' in Earby until 1806 when they dissolved partnership. William Harrison was trying to let it in 1810. If this isn't the main mill it was a water power site which might have been an earlier fulling mill.

[Wendyf]

Thanks for that Stanley.
It can be difficult to distinguish between Booth Bridge & Earby Mill, they were so close together that you have to wonder if they were both corn mills. One of the newspapers reports below states that Bernard Crook owned the mill which burnt down in 1812, but we know that "Earby Mill" was part of the Lister Kay estate in the 1820's and the mill site was included in an estate sale of 1857. The first edition OS map shows another weir further downstream.
In 2011 the Youth Hostel had a survey done to assess the sites suitability for installing a water turbine and the following is from research Bob Abel carried out on Earby Mill then.

LEEDS MERCURY ADVERTS ETC RE EARLY MILLS
IN EARBY/THORNTON-IN-CRAVEN

March 17th 1810
Mill to be Let
Good substantial mill, with new dwelling house, adapted for corn or cotton business – excellent stream with an uncommon good fall – prevents ever being troubled by back water

Present Tennant Mr William Harrison of Earby
Addinell of Tadcaster – Agent

March 24th 1810

Mill to be let
Repeat of the above.

July 18th 1812

On Friday night a cotton mill at EARBY NR Skipton burnt to the ground. From nature of circumstances strong suspicion that it was due to some incendiary,

May 28th 1814

Lately burnt down mill with good new Water Wheel 30ft diameter – good new built dwelling house – never failing water 34 ft fall

June 4th 1814

To be Let

Lately burnt down mill – 30ft water wheel 34ft fall

Apply to John Broughton of Thornton
Or
Adddinell of Tadcaster – agent

Extracts from George Ingle’s book – Yorkshire Cotton

Joseph Cowgill and William Harrison cotton spinners and manufacturers until 1806 – partnership dissolved. They had a small mill at Earby which William Harrison was trying to let in 1810.

This may have been a corn mill which was only used for a few years for cotton spinning


Booth Bridge
John Broughton of Thornton-in-Craven insured the contents of a small cotton mill in 1798
Burnt down in 1813 – rebuilt with 30 ft water wheel Cheap; labour and proximity to Leeds Liverpool Canal

Lancaster Gazette 11 July 1812 p3

On Friday night or early Saturday morning, the cotton mill at Earby near Colne, the property of Mr Crook of that place was discovered to be on fire. Not withstanding every exertion, the mill was entirely burnt down with all the valuable machinery. We are sorry to learn that the insurance will not near cover the loss.

From map of 1857, BARNARD Crook owns land now site on Earby Youth Hostel grounds

Hydro turbine project report 2011

Hydraulic head of water 9.5/10mt
34 ft (the head quoted in the advert) = 10.36 mt

Water Wheel dimension

is 30ft - If this is diameter then need a wheel pit at least 15ft deep ie 5 yds
The wheel pit at Booth Bridge was far less than this. A wheel this size suggest it may not have been in a pit but attached to side of a building. Booth Bridge Mill had a more gentle slope to the wheel pit whereas a mill behind the present youth hostel, taking water from the water falls into a mill dam above the mill would probably give the right configuration to feed such a high water wheel.

[Stanley]

Booth Bridge at Thornton definitely was a corn mill before being converted to bobbin turning. See my pics of the rack stones from the drying kiln and broken mill stones.