Only three of the water powered mills in Barlick grew large enough to become 'vertical' mills where both spinning and weaving went on under one roof powered by water, County Brook, Mitchell's and Old Coates. However, another factor became important. By 1800 the Leeds and Liverpool Canal had reached Barlick and it became possible to transport coal from both the Lancashire and Yorkshire coal fields into the town. This meant that unreliable water power could be replaced by steam engines which gave far more power and reliability. We know that by 1830 Bracewell's Old Shed in Earby, Mitchell's mill and Old Coates in Barlick all had steam engines and were successful. By 1855 William (Billycock) Bracewell had built two large new mills, Butts and Wellhouse. Making a living in Barlick was easy because these large mills needed more labour than was available in the town, if you could stomach mill work there was full employment.
There was only one problem in Barlick and it was called Billycock! William Bracewell of Newfield Edge was a control freak. He gained such a hold on the town that he stifled development by buying land, controlling water resources that were needed for the new steam engines and even buying up local milk rounds. He bought collieries at Ingleton and when his cousins, the Bracewell brothers of Coates went bankrupt at Old Coates and sold it to a local man called John Nuttall he cut off the water supply to the mill to stop it being re-opened. I've told the story of the collapse of the Bracewell empire before but suffice it to say that the death of one of his sons triggered off a series of events that culminated in Billycock's death in 1885, the collapse of his interests and a series of sales from 1887 onwards that opened the door to new blood coming into the industry. These new men saw that the days of the vertical combined spinning and weaving mill had gone. Yarn could be imported more cheaply by rail from South Lancashire than they could spin it and so all the new mills from this point on were specialised weaving sheds.
The first in the field were the new 'shed companies' which used the latest financial techniques for raising share capital and built mills in which space could be let to individual tenants. This was the Room and Power system which took all the worries of actually running a steam powered mill off the tenants and allowed them to concentrate on the profitable job of weaving cloth. In 1900 a fully furnished loom could be bought for £5 and the cloth from it paid back the investment in under three months. It was a licence to print money and completely transformed the town. The result was that in 1920 there were fourteen mills and almost 25,000 looms running. Weavers came in from outside the town to make up the shortfall in labour. Work was plentiful.
The first of the new mills, Long Ing opened in 1887.