1 Anne Drake
Posted
Some Facts about Ebor Mill Haworth
Ebor Mill and dam was built in 1819 by Thomas and Hiram Jr Craven They built a Waterwheel big enough to drive a worsted mill. In 1840 the mill and house was purchased by the Merrall Family. Edwin Merrall bought both Ebor Mill and Ebor House.They erected new weaving sheds as well as a gasworks
Worsted mill, established c1819 with construction of water-powered spinning mill of three storeys and basement and seven bays. Occupied from c1850 by Merrall Brothers, who also worked from Lees Mill, Bingley, and Lowertown Shed and Mill, Haworth. Ebor Mills expanded with extensions to original mill, addition of large two-phase weaving shed fronted by a warehouse, and construction in 1887 of six-storeyed nineteen-bay mill, timber-floored over a fireproof basement, to designs by W and J B Bailey of Bradford and Keighley. Merralls ran all three of their mills as integrated worsted factories. Associated buildings: row of cottages next to mill, Ebor House and Longlands, and other manufacturers' houses.
Haworth and the church had already become a place of Bronte pilgrimage. However, it was proved that the building was unsafe and unsanitary as water from that graveyard was seeping in through the floor, so the work went ahead. The foundation stone of the present church was laid on Christmas day in 1879 by Michael Merrall esq, a local mill owner, who contributed £5000 of the £7000 needed to complete the new building. A number of the stained glass windows inside the current church are dedicated to the memory of Michael Merrall by his work force and his family.
I have ancestors that lived in the cottages and worked at the mill. Also my grandfather worked in the office at Lees Lane. My mother worked in the weaving shed.
I worked in the office that were built above the waterwheel, I often had to go round the whole of the mill including the weaving sheds with wages and work sheets. I later worked in the large mill Spinning, Twisting, Roving. The real owners of the mill were the Jeromes who had a large Mill in Saltairs, Victoria Mills. I worked there til it moved to Keighley In 1992.