BARLICK CORN MILL IN THE 1950S

[Stanley]

The Corn Mill in the 1950`s (DRAFT)


Harry Smith, as a young man aged 16, worked in the corn mill in 1956, and for many years previously had been familiar with the building. Below is his account of the mill at the time.

The corn mill was bought in 1948 by James Moreland Hoyle of 62 Skipton Road, Barnoldswick, and his son and business partner, Maurice Crompton Hoyle and run as an animal foodstuffs business. The conveyance dated 7th January included ….. “plot of land situate near to Cornmill Terrace and containing 342 yards …. Together with premises known as the Barnoldswick Cornmill with the boiler house, engine house, chimney, two dwelling houses, piggeries, stable and other building erected on the first mentioned plot of land”. The partnership was dissolved in 1962.

Animal feed was bought in and re-sold, but a large quantity was prepared and bagged on the premises. The workforce of the time numbered 9. Working hours were 8.00 am to 6.00 pm, Monday to Friday and 7.30 am to 1.00 pm on Saturday. Often it was mid-afternoon before work finished for the drivers on a Saturday as Hoyle would send them on delivery round that was impossible to complete by the finishing time. There were no formal breaks for meals or other refreshments; these were taken when opportunities occurred. If a wagon arrived with a delivery during a meal break, its unloading became a priority. Holidays were taken during the July wakes fortnight with a day being granted for both Christmas and Easter; Boxing day was worked. Harry`s weekly wage was £5. 2. 6d.

The main mill building was sited alongside Butts Beck and during periods of heavy rainfall, the land to the north regularly flooded up to a depth of approximately 1m. The surrounding access roads were unmade and on many occasions disputes arose with the neighbours over blocked or restricted access as deliveries were regularly being made to the mill. Harry Smith remembers that many times when he arrived for work there were 5-6 vehicles waiting to be unloaded, and this was done by the morning break time. However, it must be recalled that wagons then were smaller than those of today.

Two large cast iron pillars were positioned on the access road to the mill from West Close Road. On the main road side there was a pit c. 4` 0” wide by 8` 0”. In this were two valves connected to the gasometer in the yards of the gas works, one sited to the east across the beck and the other within the main works. A wooden bridge crossed the beck where the present concrete one is now sited. The brick building on the other side of the beck was the Barnoldswick CWS dairy and slaughterhouse.

The strip of land to the west of the mill between the building and the beck was used as a gentlemen`s toilet. At that time a garage for a local bus company backed onto the beck and frequently disposed of its used tyres in the beck. James Hoyle, anxious to save money, would send his junior workers into the beck to retrieve these and use them on his wagons – his standards not being as high as those of the bus company. The building was frequented by a large number of rats, which James Hoyle shot with a shotgun at times when he saw them by the water. He would then throw them into the beck. A wooden sluice gate was sited on the beck on the southern line of the lodge. In times of drought the sluice was closed and water pumped up to the lodge when the water wheel was in use.

The oats husk blower bag discharged onto the strip of land from the fourth window from the north on the third floor. Some seed was often in this and oats grew on the beck bank. The contents of the discharge were a strong irritant as the result of cracking the oats.

To the north of the mill, up against the retaining wall to the land formerly owned by the Barnoldswick Gas and Light Company Limited, was a garage alongside the road leading to West Close. In the garage James Moreland Hoyle kept his Austin motor car. There was also a hand operated petrol pump to supply the company`s 3-4 wagons. These wagons delivered the animal feed to the customers.

To the side of this were three stone piggeries. In the first pen pigs were kept which were fed on spoil from the wagons. In the centre pen straw was kept and in the right hand one some poultry was reared. These were not fed directly but had to rely on spilt feed. At the end of the return wall was a muck midden. At one time Maurice Hoyle decided to grow mushrooms in the piggeries for which his father demanded a rental. On asking his son for a few of the mushrooms he received them, but was then asked for payment!

The stable is positioned at the northern end of Cornmill cottages. The present large sliding door was formerly a stable door leading into a single stable. The right hand door led into a stable for four horses with their heads facing towards the cottage. A hay loft was on the first floor and the feed for the horses was dropped through the floor into their feeders. The floor to this stable was made up of fine river cobbles. The horses were not well looked after and some were vicious.

In 1956 the stables were used as a peat moss store. The peat moss came from Swinefleet near Doncaster in 5 ton loads and each bale weighed up to 2¼ cwt (63kg). The peat came stacked four rows high on the wagon and the top two rows went into the hay loft with the bottom two rows being stored in the stable. Only only one man carried each bale, and it was a job requiring considerable physical effort.

At this time the cottage next to the stable was leased by Maggie Brown. The lower ground floor was a wash house entered from the rear passage; there was no internal access to this room. The adjoining large house was built as a single dwelling and then occupied by the Jackson family.

The levels between the mill and the mill lodge have been changed in recent times. The former level, by the present loading doors now increased in width, was much reduced so that a wagon`s tail gate equalled that of the floor of the loading area. The level of the concrete slab to the side of the loading bay has been raised from just below the top of the stone wall seen to the side of the passage between Cornmill house.

In 1956 the mill lodge was much reduced in size from its previous extent, extending approximately to Powell Street. The walls within the lodge were well built of stone with an applied render. There were railings on top of the surrounding wall. The lodge was drained sometime in the mid-fifties.

There were two sluices leading from the lodge, traces of the first can be seen in the surrounding wall, which was in line with the water wheel house. The second was closer to the corner and ran under the area to the side of the loading area and fed Crow Nest mill. The mill chimney to the side of the lodge was some 110 feet (33m) high.

The lean-to building at the south was used for the storage of the best oat and best pea straw. The straw was broken open and fed down down a chute to the lower floor and chopped into small lengths from one inch to minimum – chaff. The chaff was then fed into the chaff store below – a low ceiling store and then bagged for sale or fed into the mixer on the second floor. When mixed with bran it became `trotting feed`. This was supplied by the mill to local horse owner`s such as the Dickinsons and Bannisters. It is possible that an engine was housed in this space at one time,as Harry Smith recalls much of the stonework to the walls being soaked in oil. The external doors have been enlarged in width.

The main building itself is four storeys high with an entrance and loading area at ground level on the north elevation. The archway to this entrance was low and restricted loads on wagons. A further loading area was on the second floor at the rear of the building as the land rises to the rear of the building. The principle of working was that manufactured goods entered the ground floor of the building and were stored on the top floor. The manufacturing processes relied on gravity for their preparation, with the grain being passed down to machinery on the second floor, bagged and stored on the first floor and checked and loaded on vehicles for delivery on the ground floor. In 1956 all machinery was electrically powered. Gas was previously used for lighting and powere but due to an earlier dispute with the Barnoldswick Gas and Light Company Limited was subsequently disconnected.

The grain grown locally, wheat, barley and oats, was raised by a hoist to the third floor. The grain came in sacks owned and leased to the farmers by British Rail or Chisholme, Fox and Gardner. The weight could vary due to water content but varied between 2 cwt (50kg) and 2.7 cwt (86kg) for wheat. On arrival, the weight of all sacks was checked by James Hoyle.

The hoist, the shaft and drive wheel, which are still extant, extended through a series of traps in each floor to the ground floor loading bay. A small rope running vertically to the side of each trap operated a lifting beam which tightened a belt and caused the shaft to turn. On the end of the lifting rope was a bull ring and chain which was passed around the end of the sack. The large pulley over the trap was for the lifting rope and the small pulley for the operating rope. On occasions, if a paper sack was being lifted, the bottom would burst if it had become wet and lost its strength. Sometimes if a very heavy sack was being lifted, the belt would slip and a paste would have to be applied to provide friction. When this occurred the sack could suddenly shoot up to the pulley.

When the sacks were raised they were stacked on the floor with two rows set upright and five laid flat over the lower two rows. The whole floor was stacked like this with the height of the sacks extending about the ties to the roof truss. This would have applied an immense loading on the floor.

Three hoppers opened onto the third floor; one close to the staircase was to receive barley, wheat and oats which was then ground to make a wheat meal. This machine could grind anything and occasionally even rubbish was fed into it. A second machine between that and the hoist was to receive oats, which were crushed to make kibbled wheat. A third on the other side of the floor was to receive mixed grain for poultry and other feed.

On the second floor were the machines themselves. The grain entered the grinder from the hopper and was ground by a wheel c. 1m in diameter. The oat crusher consisted of two rollers, each about 1m long by 150mm diameter. These rotated at a tremendous speed. The dust was extracted through a window towards the beck as already described.

The third machine was a drum of large diameter c. 2.2m wide with an archimedes screw within it. This mixed the grain by drawing it down the centre and then forcing it up the outside.

The remainder of the second floor was used to store high quality prepared feed stuffs. These were bought in from firms such as Bibbys.

On the first floor the three products were drawn from the machines via a hopper c. 2m square and then bagged. They were then weighted and stacked against the walls and at the southern end of the floor. The only stock stored on this floor was that manufactured at the mill. All the bags used were second hand and nothing was produced with the name of the company identified.

Sometime later a bulk grain store of three large hoppers was formed within the former water wheel housing. Evidence of the dividing channels can be seen. This was filled by means of trap doors in the stone floor at second floor level.

The ground floor was used for loading and unloading of goods, the majority of which went to or came from the upper floors. Some goods were stacked on this floor such as grit for poultry which came from Boston, Lincolnshire, nine tons of which was stored under the staircase leading to the first floor, and milk powder in 28lb bags. The hessian sacks were stored below the old millstone frames.

The chaff store was under the present joiners shop and chaff was forced by air through two wooden vents into bays against the rear wall. Vents leading to the store can be seen in the external wall close to the junction of the main north wall.

The office was in the front of the building alongside the loading bay and had windows overlooking it. Most deliveries, both in and out, were checked by Hoyle. He would weigh incoming goods and if he found that short weight had been delivered he would ring the farmer concerned and demand compensation. More often than not the farmer was the loser. A part time book keeper was employed called Frank Cowgill. He could add up columns of figures at a phenomenal speed, faster than any calculator and with greater accuracy.

By the standards of today, the corn mill was an unpleasant and dangerous place to work. James Moreland Hoyle was a hard task master. Heating was virtually non-existent and if an employee said that it was cold his answer was to `get some bloody work done`. Work came before everything and if a wagon arrived it had to be loaded or unloaded immediately, even if a lunch break was being taken. He had a fairly short temper and if annoyed would take a swipe at people with a shovel, even on one or more occasions his son. He had a habit of chewing small quantities of grain, a supply of which he kept in his coat pocket. Many farmers at the time were finding the going hard and some went to Hoyle for advances on their forthcoming grain sales or for loans. If advances were made they were on the basis of a much lower figure than that which would have been obtained at harvest time, which made a farmers financial position even more perilous. Often loans could not be repaid and farmland was taken to clear them. In this way James Hoyle became one of the largest landowners around owning some twelve farms.