Report - Parkwood Mills, Longwood - February 2016

[tweek]

Parkwood Mills and the Longwood Brook

Nestled in the Longwood valley sits the mammoth Parkwood Mills. But don't be getting your hopes up! The majority of this complex of six or seven distinct mill buildings has been converted to apartments, with some buildings being flattened, and a couple stood idle. Empty, disused and waiting for a buyer in 2005 - by 2007, work on the conversion had started.

On the whole, it's a successful conversion that has retained the basic footprint of the complex where other massive factories in the village have long since gone, most commonly to be replaced with only the natural landscaping of the overgrowth of time.

Evidence of textiles amongst the overgrown rubble of nearby Sunnybank Mills (demolished in the early 80s!)

Some areas along the Longwood Brook have been become modern housing estates, and despite the general feel of a textile valley being maintained through existing businesses occupying the surviving former mills, the course of the brook as it flows down off the Pennine hills is a lot more quaint and unassuming a setting now than it would have been even 30 years ago.

This report is actually part of a larger body of work I've been compiling on the Longwood Brook; a stream running from it's source at the ancient Roman fort at Slack near Outlane (a village now sliced in half by the M62 motorway) to where the brook meets the Colne River at Milnsbridge. I'll save you the extent of all that waffle, as it's of a very anoraky, interdisciplinary nature that, although inevitably includes some recreational trespass, isn't all relevant to "urban exploring". What I feel is, will be outlined in this report.

Fudge and I had initially been under the mills some time ago; charting the course of the Longwood brook and dropping in and out of it's culverted sections as it passes through the townships of Longwood and Milnsbridge to it's confluence with the Colne.

There is also a large, floorless building on the site that has remained undeveloped, and although large, the building was totally gutted and could only one warrant one photo on my roll of film.

The main focus of this report, however, was a much smaller building furthest to the east of the site. It's been covered in an advertising vinyl for a few years now, and had remained inaccessible (at least to me) for as long as I'd known about it. If I'm honest, I never truly expected much to be inside, and upon finding an entry, I found the building has very disappointingly been used largely as a dumping ground for the various elements of building waste, equipment and storage for the redevelopment of the other, much more substantial, buildings on the large site. Still, you never know until you check do ya!

History

There is actually a great deal of information regarding these mills to delve into, so I have cherry-picked a couple of the more obscure, interesting and colourful sources I managed to uncover.

From *Broadbent (writing in 1976):

The origin of the Parkwood Mills, as the Broadbent mills have always been known, is that some time in the 1830's the family acquired "Butcher's Mill" in payment of a bad debt. This was a small square mill, driven by a waterwheel, the pit for which still exists. It is now known as No. 1 Mill, but when my cousin "young" Theo first joined the company it was still referred to as Butcher's Mill by some of the older inhabitants.

Nos. 2 and 3 Mills were built later in the century, and all were equipped in due course with two horizontal steam engines, one of which replaced the waterwheel. Both these engines were still running in my youth, one alleged to be eighty years old, though I think this must have been an exaggeration. The larger and more recent was a magnificent piece of Victorian engineering. It had two cylinders with enormous piston-rods yearly twenty feet long, and the non-moving parts were painted green and gold. Its power turned a vast wheel on which was a roperace. Manila ropes about two inches thick ran upwards to all floors of the building, where the power was transferred to belt-drives which ran the looms, spinning-machines and other equipment. To my young mind it gave an impression of illimitable strength, as it purred away with very little sound. Today the Mills are run by electricity.

There were many ancillary buildings, including a dyehouse which existed from the earliest times. In my time there were buildings on each side of the road, connected by a pedestrian bridge. The main ones south of the road were occupied by the Broadbent companies and included their offices, while the single building to the north was let, floor by floor, to tenants.

The Broadbents were good employers, and there has been a remarkable absence of industrial unrest or strikes, even to the present day. A few strikes there have been, one as far back as 1896 which caused the family great anxiety, but they have been common to the whole industry.

In general, management of the Mills was a humdrum affair, though the state of trade was often a cause of worry, and in the early days there were times when there was hardly enough money to pay the staff and the coal bill. Accidents did however happen. There was once a serious smash of one of the engines, which did great damage, and a letter to John in India describes another, which took place on 27 January 1879:

"We had just finished (midday) dinner when Robert came running up to say that there had been an accident with the crane and John Haigh was badly hurt. Ben ran off at once with brandy and cottonwool, and while Dr. Haigh bound up the wounds Charles drove Dr. Walker to Huddersfield to have all ready at the Infirmary. It was evident his leg must be amputated, it was so frightfully crushed, but we thought that would be the worst, but when Ben arrived at 8... he was told that he had died 5 minutes before. Poor Ben, it has been a terrible blow to him. We all went to the funeral. It was a terribly cold day, and the snow was nearly a yard thick at the top of the hill." John replied: "...I have felt John Haigh's death very much. There are few men in any station in life for whom I cared so much; he was so true and loyal..."

There were also a least two fires. Arthur gives a graphic description of one, on June 1, 1875. "We were all waked up by the buzzer at 4½ (4.30 am), Ben and I rushed down to the Mills, which were almost hid with clouds of smoke and steam. As we got nearer we were tremendously relieved to see the flames proceeded from a drying-store, which is separated from the large mill by the engine-house and is fireproof. We have a good Fire Brigade, and when we got down the hose was out and ready for playing. As soon as we got the water turned on such a deluge was poured on the fire that it was mastered in quarter of an hour. I got drenched to the skin within a few minutes and was also somewhat scorched."

I couldn't decline the opportunity of including a couple of relevant excerpts from the book 'Colne Valley Folk: The Romance and Enterprise of a Textile Stronghold' by Ernest Lockwood, published in 1936. A chance find from scouring the local history section of a second hand bookshop. The book is brilliant - for it's insights and also for the prose of the era in which it was written.

Back to 1793

The name of Broadbent has been a household one in the district for nearly a hundred and fifty years. The business which bears that name goes back to about the year 1793, and was founded by John Broadbent of Lindley. The family removed to Longwood Edge about the year 1822. This John Broadbent had a son bearing the same name, who married Ester Butterworth of Holmfirth, and for a time they lived at Lindley, later moving to Longwood Edge. They had ten children, of whom eight reached maturity; William, Butterworth, Mary Jane, Sarah, John, Leila, Benjamin, and Arthur. The original John Broadbent was first a fuller and then a cloth merchant, and the firm of John Broadbent and Son, at Parkwood Mills, Longwood, has always been a woollen manufacturing and merchant's business, the partners in which, previous to the business being turned into a limited company in 1917, were Benjamin and Arthur. The first warehouse was opposite to the house at Longwood Edge. Later, about 1850, the first mill of the extensive Parkwood Mills complex was built, and the other six mills added between then and 1880.

The Parkwood Mills Co. was established in 1848 and was converted into a limited company in 1896. This company were millowners, and provided room and power for various tenants who occupied different parts of the mills. Some were spinners, some manufacturers, and one a finisher.

In 1887, the latter business was acquired, and the company now known as the Longwood Finishing Co. Ltd. was formed. The directors are Lieut.-Colonel J. T. C. Broadbent (chairman), W. K. B. Broadbent (secretary), A. E. Dickinson, and J. Hollingworth. The directors of the Parkwood Mills Co. Ltd. were Sir W. H. Broadbent Bart. (chairman), Colonel J. E. Broadbent, Benjamin Broadbent, and Arthur Broadbent. On Sir William's death in 1907, Colonel J. E. Broadbent took over the chairmanship until his retirement in 1924. Sir J. F. H Broadbent Bart., son of Sir William, was director from 1908 until 1932. The present directors are W. K. B. Broadbent, Lieut.-Colonel J. T. C. Broadbent, and E. A. H. Gee. Since 1933 the business of the company was extended and they are now commission spinners and manufacturers, all the other tenants having seceeded from the premises. The three firms employ from four hundred to four hundred and fifty workpeople.

It is interesting to note that the first John Broadbent, the great-grandfather of W. K. B. Broadbent, was marked down for shooting by the Luddites. In the 'Life of Sir William Broadbent' appears the sentence, "In the Luddite disturbances that broke out in the year of 1812, his name was on the list of manufacturers who were to be shot for having introduced a frame instead of handwork in one of the processes, and the threat might have been carried out if one of his own men had not interposed".

Job Beaumont and Son Ltd

An illustration of how all the members of a family used to help in the early stages of an industry is found in the history of Job Beaumont and Son Ltd., of Woodland Mills, Longwood. The founder was Job Beaumont, who began weaving on the hand-loom at his home, New Row, Lamb Hall Road, Longwood, in 1862. Job Beaumont eventually got together seven hand-looms, and two of them were worked by his sons, John and Enos. The other weavers were Alfred Beaumont, Enoch Beaumont, William Henry Crowther, and Ewart Hirst.

Job Beaumont also obtained a ten-spindle winding machine turned by hand, and wound bobbins for the weavers. The warps were stretched and opened out in the open-air on the top of Longwood Edge, and then wound on to the beams in the house. The looms were upstairs.

As the business improved it was transferred to Parkwood Mills, and power looms were used there. By 1882, the plant had increased to forty-three looms, ten sets of carding machines, and six pairs of mules for spinning. The teasing room, dyehouse, and finishing plant were in different rooms at the mills. Owing to increasing age and the state of his health, Job Beaumont did not take much part in the business at this time... ...Enos looked after the manufacturing business. Beaming and putting-up was done by John Beaumont, and perching by Charles Beaumont, who also looked after the gears on the twisting frames. Twisting and warping was done by a number of female members of the respective families.

The business was carried on at Parkwood Mills until 1903. Early in that year Woodland Mills were taken over, and ten additional looms, making sixty in all were obtained.

John Lockwood and Sons Ltd.

John Lockwood began the business in 1874 as a linsey manufacturer, at Leys, Longwood, by engaging hand loom weavers and having yarn spun on commission.

About 1881 the firm moved to Parkwood Mills, Longwood and in 1891 Scarbottom Mills, which were formerly occupied by the firm of Fieldings, were purchased.

Up to this time all the goods were dried outside on tenters in a field at Leys, and the finished pieces were made up and sent away from there. Following the purchase of Scarbottom Mills, the outside tenters were discarded and all the goods were dried and finished at the mill, where the full process from beginning to end was carried out.

Warping

Spinning

So there you have it. A load of building materials and zero evidence of textile production remaining. Still, it's always good to find out one way or another. Thanks, if you made it this far!

​

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Nicely done

Didn't know there was that much left! Been up that chimney a fair few times

 

[Mr Beady]

smashing

 

[dweeb]

"HTFC shit" lol

Nice, amazing how the insulation for the conversion is already stowed away next to mill trolleys!

 

[tweek]

"HTFC shit" lol

While much has changed in the industrial landscape of Huddersfield over the past few decades, it's reassuring to know nothing has changed in the field of local sport!

Incidentally, I have a burgeoning collection of Huddersfield Town related photos amassed from derps.

 

[Pixels]

Some great pics there

 

[Fudge]

Ha, i thought that htfc thing was in one of the marsden mills when i saw it on your tumblr.

 

[host]

Another cracking report mate, keep em coming.

 

[NickUk]

Some cracking shots there as always, bro!

 

[tweek]

Cheers, yo!

Another cracking report mate, keep em coming.

Will do, just working through a mammoth back catalogue of derp.

Some cracking shots there as always, bro!

Love you homeslice.

 

[Urban Rambler]

great photos, really enjoyed this post.