CLOUGH SITE IN WAPPING, BARLICK.

[Stanley]

CLOUGH SITE IN WAPPING, BARLICK.
1753 and 1756. Josias Parkinson pays land tax for Clough, Barnoldswick. 1760 John Dean pays land tax for Clough. 1800. Hartley, Bracewell and Co occupied the water mill on the site [Note that this is almost certainly neither the Coates or Newfield edge branch. The root for all the Bracewells in Barlick was the Bracewells of Salterforth, all the family members we are interested in stem from there. This Bracewell would have direct lineage to Salterforth but no connection with Coates or Newfield Edge.]. This might have been the original build. 1807. William Mitchell mentioned on electoral roll as spinner of Barnoldswick. [this is Mitchell of Mitchell’s Mill Barlick and not County Brook Mitchells who hadn’t come to the area. Ken Wilson says that Newfield Edge House was built by William Mitchell in 1770. He’s usually accurate but I don’t know what his evidence was.] Insurance for the Hartley, Bracewell and Co occupation was Mill £200. Mill work £10, Machinery £150. stock £40. This was not a big mill judging from these values. This could be the ‘old cotton mill’ insured by William Mitchell in 1812. Mill £500. Machinery £500. Drying house for warps £50. [This indicates dyeing] Stock £250. [These are significantly higher values] Mitchell extended the mill and installed an engine in 1827. In 1831 the insurance values were: Mill, engine house and sizing house, £700. Millwork £100. Machinery £1500. Stock £100. In 1838 John Wigglesworth was a tenant in the mill. 1846. Clough Mill is built next to Mitchell’s Mill by William Mitchell to hold 300 looms. The first tenants were William, Thomas and Christopher Bracewell [of Coates] who also had Old Coates Mill as well as looms in Mitchell’s Mill. Clough was built by Barlick masons but the chimney was by David Carr from Gargrave. [There is solid insurance evidence for an engine by 1827 so was this a new chimney?] The first looms in the new shed were wooden framed and came from Pilling’s at Trawden. This firm removed to Primet Bridge Colne at about this time. In 1860 the Bracewell Brothers cease trading when their partnership fails and Mr Bennett the Baptist minister takes space in Clough. [See below]

SLATERS AT CLOUGH
In 1860 John Slater and Sons are first mentioned as tenants in Clough. John Slater buys the mill in 1867 for £3,000. [£1000 in May 1867, £1000 in November 1867 and £1000 by May 1868.] The full price was paid by November 1867. John Slater also had an interest in the silk mill at Galgate near Lancaster.

1881census gives Joseph Slater as 19 and living on Mitchell Terrace in Barlick. In 1891 Census he is living at Newfield Edge and married Ada Whitaker Bracewell. Almost looks as though Billycock death was the trigger for the marriage. LTP transcript 82/JM/01. John Metcalfe talks about Slaters and says they were all related. All stem back to John Slater who bought Mitchell’s Mill in 1867 (later called Clough) [Actually there are earlier references to the Slaters but as regards cotton manufacturing we are safe in starting with John.]. James Slater at Salterforth Mill was Old John’s son. Henry Slater was another son of Old John and he fathered Fred Harry and Joseph which made them cousins to Clough Mill Slaters. John Slater (Clough) was another son of Old John. Old John ran a silk mill at Galgate before he came to Barlick. One of the reasons he survived cotton famine and was in a position to buy Clough was that he was in silk at Galgate and experimented with worsted and linen at Barlick. 1851 census notes the following at 28 Barnoldswick Lane. [Now Manchester Road] John Slater, head,45, grocer [also known to have a loomshop on Barlick Lane and a carting business.] Mary, wife, 43. Joseph, 22, HLW cotton check. Henry, 20, shop man. Thomas, 17, coal carrier. Clayton, 12, scholar. Susannah, 9, scholar. James, 6, scholar. John Slater died in 1867, Atkinson has him as 69 years but 1851 census says 61.

There is a report in 1860 of Thomas Bennett’s bankruptcy, he was a small manufacturer in Clough Mill. This seemingly minor event in the life of Clough Mill deserves close scrutiny. When the Act of Uniformity was passed in 1662 Barlick already had an illegal Baptist church in the barn backing onto the Parrock in Wapping. This is on the opposite side of the road from the Mitchell/Clough Mill site. It was one of the first places in England to be registered under the Toleration Act of 1689. In 1687 David Crossley and his cousin William Mitchell were both preachers in the district and in 1694 David Crossley was named as the first minister. In 1797 a chapel was built adjoining the barn and still exists, but as a secondhand furniture shop. The crucial fact here is that a William Mitchell was active in the Wapping area as early as the late 17th C. There are land tax assessments for the same time for James and William Mitchell but no indication of the properties. The assumption must be that it was in the same area. The History of the Baptists in Barnoldswick by Winnard (p.39) states that on January 7th 1695 David Crossley, the pastor of the Baptist Chapel purchased the Parrock (or part thereof) from William Mitchell for £25 as it adjoined their place of worship. [Note that this piece of land also contains Parrock Laithe and water mill] The Mitchell family maintained their association with the chapel in Wapping.

The Slaters who followed in the mill were Baptists as well. In 1861 there is an entry in the census for Thomas Bennett, 39, unmarried, Baptist minister of Bethesda Chapel and cotton manufacturer employing 43 persons. By this time the Bethesda Chapel at the bottom of Manchester Road, opposite the police station and now demolished and replaced by David Crossley House, had been built. This was the time of the cotton famine and the story is that Bennett was encouraged by John Slater to start manufacturing in Clough to make work for his parishioners. Bennett goes out of business about 1868, bankrupt, because after John’s death in c.1868 the Slater Brothers foreclosed on him. According to Dennis Cairns, at the same time Clayton Slater led an attack on Bennett to depose him as pastor of Bethesda. [Clayton seems to have been a bit fiery, at about the same time he and a brother were fined £5 for assaulting Levi Widdup who had allowed his donkey to graze on their father’s grave.] In 1870 Thomas Bennett was found to have been not legally dismissed as pastor but by this time the rebel members of the congregation, being trustees of Bethesda, refused to allow him to take over the chapel. For a while, both sides of the schism worshipped in various barns and rooms but eventually resolved the dispute by allowing Bennett to have use of Bethesda but the rebels building a rival chapel in North Street behind Clough Mill. This situation continued until 1971 when the two churches united in a new building next to the police station. This saga demonstrates the close links between the church and the mill and the passions that could be aroused.

After John’s death, c.1868, the firm of John Slater and Sons take over the whole of Clough. The partners were the sons, Joseph, Henry, Thomas, Clayton and James. William Atkinson says that in 1868 Clough was extended again to take more looms and the floor above was used for preparing woollen weft. [We have a tendency to assume that all the firms we look at were processing cotton. What we have to bear in mind from 1860 onwards is that a lot of manufacturers were experimenting with different staple because of the shortage of cotton due to the American Civil War.] This was discontinued after a few years and Stephen Pickles moved in with looms. Robinson Brooks started in Clough about this time. James Nutter was a tenant in partnership with Slater Edmondson. [They had amassed their capital by selling Bibles and Stephen Pickles grandson of original Stephen said that they used to threaten farmers with cattle maiming to get them to buy the family bibles at a guinea a time but this could be apocryphal] The Pickles family including brother Harry moved out to US during the Cotton Famine but came back in 1868. The family started up in Clough with four looms each (16 looms?) and Stephen Pickles (b.1856) was the Manchester man. This was the start of S Pickles and Son Ltd who eventually had the whole of Long Ing and Barnsey Shed.

In 1879 a new shed was built at Clough and it was then that the Furneval engine was installed to replace the 1827 beam engine [which was left in situ and later used again when loom numbers fell]. In 1880 Clayton Slater, 41 years old, one of the partners, left for Canada taking part of the machinery with him. There was space to spare as they had just extended so tenants were the answer. Atkinson describes Clough at this time as being the starting point for many of the firms which were later to dominate textiles in Barlick. He describes Clough as four storeys with weaving on all floors, 144 looms on each floor. Robinson Brooks was on the top floor [evidence of Billy Brooks who learned to weave there and hated going up in the hoist] Billy said the loft was used for warp preparation. Atkinson said the tenants at that time were James Nutter and Slater Edmondson in partnership with 96 looms. Windles, [see article in CH 30/12/1932. William Windle was born in Earby on January 3 1825. The 1881 census shows him aged 56 and living on Newtown with wife Margaret, 52, Owen 22, James T. 15, Edna 24, Sarah T 19. In 1891 William senior is missing but the rest of the family are living at 24 Rainhall Road with the addition of William, 44 years old. His father was Thomas Windle. In his early years William was a HLW and was one of the first PLW to work at Chris. Bracewell’s New Shed. In 1859 he married Margaret Broughton and became a taper at Butts and worked there for many years. In his later years he had 16 looms in Clough and was doing commission weaving. Francis Watson had 16 looms on the same terms and William tackled for both of them. There is a suggestion that Joseph Windle, commonly called ‘Pummers’ was in Clough but this might be a confusion.] Robinson Brooks, 80 looms. [Moved to Long Ing shortly after it opened.], John Brown (moved to Long Ing in 1888 with 98 looms. (Noted in Barrett 1887 as cotton manufacturer and engineer, house Albion Terrace.) and Bowker (All I have for Thomas Bowker is CFT 1890 moving his looms out of Coates Mill and Barrett 1896 noting him as manufacturer in Long Ing Shed. Not sure if this is Bowker mentioned in Clough). Slaters had looms as well. [Not all the brothers working in the partnership, see James. Clayton had already voted with his feet.] John Metcalfe, the former manager said Ormerod’s had looms in Clough as well. He said that ‘Nutters’ had 96 looms in what they called ‘top o’ the hill’. [This was Nutter and Edmondson actually]

In 1888 Craven Herald reported that tenants in Clough were Robinson Brooks, Stephen Pickles, and Messrs H&J Slater. Edmondson and Nutter moved out of Clough in 1888 and went to the new mill at Long Ing with 400 looms. Partnership dissolved in 1890 when James Nutter moved into Calf Hall with 414 looms. Slater Edmondson stayed at Long Ing with 400 looms. In 1905 James Nutter moved from Calf Hall to Bankfield with 900 looms. Eventually took over Bancroft from Nutter Brothers.

Joseph Slater (married Billycock’s daughter Ada Whitaker) Henry and Fred Harry Slater seem to have been the main men in John Slater and Sons at this time. BUDC rate books for 26 March 1894 show Henry, trading as Clough Mill Company as owner of Clough Mill. Half year rates £176. Fred Harry died in 1930 aged 60. [He was also a founding director of Westfield Shed and a past director of the Long Ing Shed Co] Joseph died at Newfield Edge on 22/02/1926. They and their descendants ran Clough until they wove out in 1956. John Metcalfe, the manager said that when they finished they had 280 looms on the ground floor and upstairs they had 20 Universal winders and 20 warp dressing frames as they were doing a lot of coloured work then.

With the rise of the shed companies from 1888 onwards tenancy at Clough seems to have died out. This is entirely understandable as Clough was a very old-fashioned and inconvenient mill. Newton Pickles says there was a fire at Clough about 1938, (1937 actually, see report in Barlick and Earby Times November 12th 1937) B&P replaced a lot of damaged cast iron pipes with steel. John Metcalfe said he went to work for Slaters in Wellhouse Mill in 1915, he said these Slaters were cousins of the ones at Clough [Edwin and John Slater, sons of Hartley later traded as Slater Brothers (Barnoldswick) Ltd.] John also said that in 1900 there was a fire in the four storey section of the mill and it was allowed to go to ‘rack and ruin’. “Joe Slater, Dick Carr Slater, Fred Harry and them” wouldn’t do anything about it but when Fred Harry and Joe died Henry got the mill. Henry had been running Slater Brothers at Wellhouse Mill. The four storey section was started up again and 128 looms brought from Wellhouse and put in the second floor. While the four storey section was disused they were weaving in the new shed in the bottom with 368 looms.

Silentnight bought Clough Mill off the Slaters and used it for bedding manufacture. There was a disastrous fire that gutted the mill and the remains were demolished about 1972 and Tom Clarke gave the site to the Council for a recreation ground.