| Title | Springhead Mill |
| Date | 1930s |
| Location | Guiseley |
| Photo ID | C712 |
| Comment | Seen in an office are, left to right, John Arthur Rhodes, Frank Malir, Harry White, Owen Bowen, Herbert Malir. John A Rhodes was the managing director of the company, he had lived at Micklefield House, Rawdon before he sold it to Rawdon UDC in 1934. |
FB212 – Springhead Mill, 1930s.
Springhead Mill Weaving Department – 1930’s
Fred Kemp, ? Hancock, George Muschamp, Harry Norfolk, Herman Denton, Walter Holmes, Jim Jukes, Jim Raistrick, John Hargreaves, John Hancock, Elsie Croft, Isobel Brown, Louie Whitham, Clarence Exley, Marion Roberts, Edith Swale, Mary Potts, Sam Sunderland.
A461 – Springhead Mill, Undated.
Springhead Mill – Undated
In this view of Springhead Mill the mill chimney has been demolished.
The company of Pawson and Hudson had started Springhead Mill in 1842, it was sold in 1879 to the New Springhead Mill Co. Ltd.
It was extended in 1913, one owner was John Arthur Rhodes who bought Micklefield House and sold it to Rawdon Council in 1930 for £4.500.
The mill closed in 1972 and it is now split into smaller industrial units.
The clock tower of St. Oswald’s Church on Towngate can be seen beyond the mill buildings.
A462 – Springhead Mill, Undated.
Springhead Mill – Undated
Springhead Mill complete with chimney, presumably the mill was so called because it was built close to Guiseley wells or springs.
The area was once part of Broad Ing, an expanse of wet, marshy ground. St. Oswald’s Church clock tower can be seen, the church is situated on Towngate.
I084 – Springhead Mill, 1990s.
Springhead Mill – 1990s
Image show the 1st phase of demolition which began in the late 1990s.
I088 – Springhead Mill, 1990s.
Springhead Mill – 1990s
As above.
FB117 – Springhead Mill, 2007.
Springhead Mill – 2007
Springhead Mill and chimney, due to be demolished for housing (2013).
Photographer Joanne Coultas.
Previous Comments:
electricalphil2005
I worked at Springhead mills for about 18 months.
I was interviewed by a chap called Frank Mailor, of Ilkley, I believe. A very pleasant and intelligent chap, who was the firms MD and he set me on in the Warehouse.
A chap named Harry Robinson of Guiseley was the foreman and he soon showed me the ropes. Rolls of cloth on cardboard tubes were wrapped in brown paper and sealed with copious amounts of sticky tape and a customer address label was taped on each roll, which was then carefully stood on end on the warehouse floor.. When the required number of rolls were ready for despatch a large Pan Technicon type removal wagon would arrive emblazoned with the name of F& H Croft & Sons, Hauliers, of Marshall street, Yeadon. It would reverse down the mill yard and park up beneath the the loading chute. Invariably It was driven by an old friend of my brothers named Collin Yeadon who lived in Starkey’s Fold just off Yeadon High street.
When Colin had lowered the chute he would shout up “Right oh” and it would be my job to slide the rolls down the chute to the wagon below and he and his mate would stack them neatly in the wagon.
In the early seventies the Mills were dying fast and Hauliers were finding it harder and harder to make a living, Collin Yeadon left F& H Croft and worked for many years as a bus driver for The West Yorkshire Road Car Co.
After a few months in the warehouse I was given the option of moving to the Department . This involved learning to operate a large heat setting machine which stretched the cloth to its final width “On tenterhooks” . these tenter hooks were mounted on an endless chain on either side of the machine, the cloth was fed on to the hooks and the width was controlled by rollers and automatic Guiders.
The cloth was then transported around the machine through various drying ovens and then went upstairs to the finishing department The foreman Norman Chaffer of Guiseley, would progress it to its next destination in the finishing department .. I was well taught by the experienced tenterer Fred Vevers, of Nunroyd Avenue, Guiseley.
12 months later I moved again into the Cloth Washing Department, this was hard graft but the money was fairly good for mill work, a lot of heavy lifting of damp and wet cloth were involved.
I feel that describing these processes is important because they are largely extinct now with the death of the Mills and photographs can only show so much.
How many people know, or care, what “kissing the shuttle” was about. 21 May 2013.
Previous Comments:
Re FB212
KenLee
The young girl (right front) was my mother, Marian Roberts who lived at 22 Moorland Crescent. She married Eric Lee of Yeadon in 1942 and moved to Yeadon in 1947. I have a copy of the original photograph, and on the back Marian has written circa 1936, which would have made her 16 at the time it was taken. She died at the age of 84 in 2004.
31 March 2014.
Consolidated by Jack Brayshaw. 17 May 2022.
Last updated: 05 January 2023 – Photo ID: FB212 & Previous Comments..
