WRW #18A: Low Mill - Old Lane P’n’G
The cache, a camo-taped, screw-capped, plastic tube in a camo-bag, is hidden a few feet from the pavement down a short small path leading down to the river and can be done as a park-and-grab with road-side parking next to the cache location.
History of Low Mill (Part 1)
In 1784 John Cockshott (glazier & woolstapler) and John Cunliffe (cloth manufacturer) became the assignee's in a bankruptcy of an estate at West Hall. This gave them the opportunity to use water power of the river to drive machinery to produce textiles much more quickly than by hand. In 1787 a small piece of land was purchased from Isaac Robinson with permission to erect a dam. Isaac Robinson's house is still at the end of the Low Mill development.
A weir was constructed on the river and a wheel installed to provide the power. Cockshott and Cunliffe intended to build a cotton mill but on its completion in 1787 instead of spinning cotton on the water frames they experimented with wool to produce a worsted yarn - thereby becoming the world's successful worsted mill, and the birth of the Bradford Worsted Trade.
The mill by the river became known as the Old End or Low Mill. In 1793 John Cockshott became bankrupt which John Cunliffe in financial difficulty. He was bailed out by his relation Nicolas Cunliffe who in turn sold his shares to Thomas Gill. In 1802 the Cunliffe family bought out Gill. By 1811 the mill was now owned by J Cunliffe and Sons, and the mill and hamlet had increased to 26 cottages and 40 spinning frames.
John Cunliffe died in 1813. His son Ellis lived in Bradford, and his second son William was living the life of a country gentleman at Farfield hall. Thomas Lister Thompson Cunliffe was not of age yet. On the death of William in 1824, Jeremiah Horsfall took out a 20-year lease and came to live at Farfield hall.
In 1826 he was re-equipping the mill with new spinning mules, they were being brought from Manchester but the shipment was attacked by a mob and destroyed. The mob led by 'Gurt Bill' of Cowling were men who had been put out of work by the new machinery.
They were called 'Luddites', allegedly named after Ned Ludd a fabled leader from Nottingham, he was, as legend told; the carrier of 'Great Enoch', a sledge hammer for smashing machinery. The mob decided to attack the mill that had bought them, In Addingham as the news got through the workers started to prepare to defend the mill, iron grills were placed over the windows, stones and firearms were taken to the higher storeys. The mill was put in
charge of Timothy Brayshaw who had fought Waterloo. He sent a warning to Greenholme mills at Otley, who in turn called in the Yorkshire Hussars from Leeds. The women of the village put up their shutters and chalked on them 'This House to Let' to deceive the rioters.
The defenders were able to hold them off but the outhouses were ransacked. The next day the attack went on and some of the rioters got into the mill. A Justice of the Peace was needed to read the Riot Act, this was John Ellis Cunliffe now living in Manningham with his second wife Mary Kay. Soldiers were sent from Leeds and local farmers and work people helped to drive the attackers away.
One of the rioters was suffocated in a tank that was draining a privy. Two other rioters were sent to York jail and later tried and imprisoned. Two defenders also died. The Hussars stayed for a few weeks and the violence died down.
A fascinating detailed account of the mob attack on Low Mill and later High Mill at Gargrave can be found in the 18 January 2014 issue of the Craven Herald & Pioneer which is based on the George Ingle book 'Trouble at t' mill'.
See here and here for videos of the weir during floods in 2012.