The first mill to be built was High Mill in Skipton Woods in 1785 by the Sidgwick family,
not for woollen cloth production but for cotton yarns. It suffered a serious setback almost
immediately in that Richard Arkwright claimed that the water powered looms infringed his
patent – but in 1806 this was proved unfounded. The mill changed from waterpower to steam
power in 1825. It closed in 1890 and was demolished, although the milldams remain.
At the start of the 19th century Skipton’s population stood at around 3,000 and a visitor,
John Byng in 1792 found it ‘This nasty, filthy inhabited town; for I never saw more
slatterns or dirtier houses.’ It seems there had been little investment in the town – once
again held back by the Earls of Thanet who had inherited the Manor through marriage.
Noting the prosperity of nearby Ilkley and Harrogate, Dr Dodgson developed spa baths
off Shortbank Road. Although fed by sulphur springs, Skipton’s Spa never rivalled Ilkley’s
or Harrogate’s for water cures; and the venture failed.
Such was the money being exchanged on market days that The Craven Bank was founded in 1791.
In those days banks could produce their own money – their notes featured the celebrated
Craven Heifer – the 1.3 tonne beast born near Bolton Abbey.
It had a number of branches in the district and merged with the Bank of Liverpool in 1918,
then with Martins Bank and finally, in 1969, was subsumed by Barclays.
The success of the Sidgwick’s High Mill made them build the Low Mill by the canal
side in 1839. Here weaving and spinning was carried out. The last of the Low Mill was
demolished in 1996 for housing.
Another mill was built in 1828 when cotton spinner John Dewhurst opened a worsted mill.
But this burned down in 1831, but when he rebuilt it, it was as a cotton mill.
There was great feeling against these mills, as they were taking away the livelihood of
the independent weavers, croppers and other associated trades. A power loom could do in
a day what a handloom weaver could do in a week. This came to a head in 1842 when a band
of 3,000 people walked from Lancashire to pull the plugs on the boilers at the Skipton
mills – which they did at Sidgwick’s and Dewhurst’s. Troops were called in
and the Riot Act was read before the mob dispersed.
But progress couldn’t be checked, and Dewhurst in 1854 built a weaving shed for 385 looms
and then the 5-storied Belle Vue mill in 1870. They became the town’s biggest employers
with around 900 workers. The company made sewing cotton that went under the Sylko brand
– it was a mix of cotton and silk that gave its thread a unique lustre.
With the growing population, that had increased by 2,000 to almost 5,000 in the 1820’s fresh
water was an issue – the water from the becks and wells had become polluted by the
insanitary conditions in the town. A small reservoir was built in 1818 followed by another,
in the area of Shortbank Close in 1823. These didn’t meet demand and in 1854 Jenny Gill
reservoir was dug followed by Whinny Gill in 1876 – but it still wasn’t enough,
so the 140 million gallon capacity Embsay reservoir was created.
The graveyard up Raikes Road was full too, and Waltonwrays became the new cemetery in
1875. There are two chapels in it – one was for Church of England and the other Non-Conformists.
In 1847 the Leeds-Bradford Railway Company built a line to the town to link with the
East Lancashire Railway line that ran through Colne and on to Morecambe. The original station
stood where Tesco’s is today. In 1873 the Midland Railway Company had taken over the
running of the line and started the construction of a line to Glasgow that would rival the
London to Edinburgh east coast line. This is the famous Settle-Carlisle line that has
been under threat on numerous occasions. To mark its completion in 1875 a new railway
station was constructed at Skipton - the one you see today that was restored in 1998.
Further lines were built. In 1888 a line from Skipton to Ilkley. Although the line closed
in 1965 part was saved by The Yorkshire Dales Railway Museum Trust. It took until 1979 for
the section immediately around the terminal at Embsay to open. In 1987 it was extended
to Holywell Halt and 10 years later it eventually reached Bolton Abbey.
It's manned by volunteers from the ticket office to the engine driver. Steam trains
run every Sunday throughout the year, and every day during the summer.
Another line was built from Skipton to Grassington in 1902. This only had a short life as it
closed in 1929. However, the line is still in existence and is used 3 or 4 times a day
for the hauling of stone from Swinden quarry near Linton.
Quarrying here has gone on since 1793. At one time it was all done by hand and the stone
used for housing or for lime production, to help fertilise land. Today the stone is crushed,
and is called aggregate, and is used for most things around us including road building material,
asphalt, concrete and for land drainage. Demand today is greater than ever and over 2 million
tonnes of limestone is extracted here annually.
Huge excavators tip the rock onto a conveyor belt to take it to the crushing house.
It's then transported by lorry or by train. 700,000 tonnes is transported by rail every
year and this train, being loaded, will transport around 1,800 tonnes to Tarmac’s asphalt
plants at Leeds, Hull or Dewsbury.
The quarry will close around the year 2020 and the site will be transformed into a nature reserve.
The coming of the railway and the new investment in the town can be attributed to one factor:
the death of Lord Thanet in 1849. The estate now passed to the Tufton family who lived
in Kent. They had a very different attitude towards land ownership. They granted 99-year
leases and sold lands in the town.
This had an immediate effect – more mills were built! Both Union Mill off Keighley Road
and Broughton Road Mill were established for small textile related companies.
Two successful companies spun out from these mills - Samuel Farey built Firth Mill off Sackville Street
and George Walton built Alexandra Mill off Keighley Road.
William Wilkinson built Victoria Mill in 1847 as a corn mill, and Park Mill was built in
1889 – unusually built away from the canal!
The demand for labour was met with people coming from the outlying villages and beyond.
To house them rows of terraced houses were built in the new districts of Newtown and
Middletown. Sanitary conditions were improved with the rows of houses having outside toilets
in the back yards.
Further houses were squeezed in the centre of the town – yards of houses were built
along the ginnels such as Hallam’s Yard, named after the builder. Although prime properties
today, you must remember that some of these houses may have accommodated up to a dozen
people and that there were no bathrooms or modern conveniences. The air would be smoke
laden – not just from burning coal to heat and cook, but also from the mill chimneys.
Fires at mills were frequent, necessitating a fire brigade.
It's no wonder that with hard living conditions and long hours of work, that men found solace
in the local pubs! We have already seen the oldest, the Red Lion – although it is thought
that the Black Horse has been on this site since 1659 – the datestone includes the
arms of the Butcher’s Guild – RG stands for Robert Goodgeon who built it. The Cock
& Bottle on Swadford Street was a pub in 1729.
Even this place of respectability was a pub
– The Bay Horse;
and this was the New Ship Inn until 1974.
These pubs were not only frequented by mill workers at night – but during the day by
farmers coming to sell their cattle in the market on Tuesdays and making a full day of it.
And also at special markets such as the autumn horse fair and the pig markets
held at other times of the year. Many of these pubs would have brewed their own beer.
In 1816 Christopher Scott opened the Skipton Brewery; this closed just after WWI when it
was then owned by Bentley’s. The tradition of brewing was revived in 2002 when the Copper
Dragon brewery opened.