Yorkshire Industrial Heritage

Eccleshill textile mills

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Map of Eccleshill textile mills

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Eccleshill is an area, former village, and ward in the City of Bradford Metropolitan District in the county of West Yorkshire, England. The ward population of Eccleshill is 17,540. Eccleshill is a more or less completely residential urban area with very little open space although there is substantial open land directly to the east.

Eccleshill has a number of mills. The Old Mill on Victoria Road was a woollen mill built in the early 1800s and destroyed by fire in 1816. The present building on the site is dated 1863 although parts of it date back to the early 1800s. Victoria Road was previously named Mill Lane —the renaming in 1889 was to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee that year.

In around 1816 Union Mill on Harrogate Road was constructed for the manufacture of woollens. Later a further three storey mill building was added to the south of the site. From 1892 to 1983 John Pilley and Sons owned and operated the mills and so the mills became known as Pilley's Mill. Union Mills had a serious fire in 1905. Today the buildings are a mixture of commercial and light industrial units.

Tunwell Mill was built as a woollen mill near Tun Well (Town Well) directly south of Stony Lane, although today's Tunwell Mills are not the original mill building.

At the north end of Stone Hall Road is a mill variously known as Stone Hall Shed and Whiteley's Mill where worsted was manufactured. Halfway down Stone Hall Road off to the west stood Victoria Mill, a worsted mill. This mill has been demolished and domestic properties now stand on the site.

Moorside Mills was built on Moorside Road in 1875 by John Moore for worsted spinning. In 1919 two floors were added and a clock tower as a war memorial to those who had died in the First World War. Ownership of the mill changed hands many times and in 1970 Bradford Metropolitan District Council bought the property from Messrs. W. & J. Whitehead to create the Bradford Industrial Museum.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Map of Eccleshill with its 12 textile mills (Textile mill icon).

Ortofotographic map

Ortofoto

Aerial photographic view of Eccleshill, West Yorkshire.

Towns near Eccleshill.

Nearest industrial towns.

Towns with historical textile mills near Eccleshill.

Comments

1 David Smith

Posted

I'm trying to find information about Rhodes Brothers mill which used to be on the corner of Victoria Road and Victoria Avenue, and concentrated on spinning and warping. Do you have any information?

2 Valmy Scholes

Posted

In response to David Smith's comment the mill was known as Ardsley Shed, the company was Rhodes Bros and Hardacre Ltd, the brothers were Philip and Keith Rhodes. The work was commission winding, warping and sizing often of a specialised nature, especially sizing as Keith was expert at handling the sizing of single worsteds - used for making ladies kilts.

I worked there in 1956 as an odd job man whilst looking for a job, setting up the warp flanges loading them and unloading when finished, making the size. There was a Lancashire boiler which I used to feed to maintain the steam pressure used to provide the heating and steam to heat up the size mixture and the sizing drying drum. During the wake weeks the boiler was cleaned and though it was left to cool down for a week it was still a very warm and dirty job. The office was in Ardsley House which is still there.

When the brothers retired in 1983 Ardsley Shed was sold to a lampshade manufacturer.

3 David Smith

Posted

Thank you Valmy Scholes for the information regarding Rhodes Brothers. My mother worked there from around 1957 to the late 1970s. As children my sister and I would play among the baskets in school holidays (no child care then) while our mother was at work.

4 Philippa Halla

Posted

While doing some family history I found that some of my relatives lived in Greengates Road and worked in various capacities in one of the mills. I was wondering if anyone has any information as to the employees of these Mills as I would like to know which mill they worked at. The names are Harry Walton born 1867 a worsted doffer and his father Thomas Walton born 1838 also a worsted doffer. the family address was 33 Greengates Rd Eccleshill (which, incidentally I am unable to find on any maps of that time scale). Thank you in advance for any information

5 Christina Harris

Posted

Was there a mill owned by Pollards or Fishers in Eccleshill about 1930 or so? Within walking distance of Victoria Road, Norman Lane and Mount Street - thank you.

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