Lost Mills & Ghost Mansions

Lost Mills and Ghost Mansions Learning Zone

Photograph: UNSPUN by Tim Smith

How To Use

LOREM

Lost Mills and Ghost Mansions was made in partnership with Bradford Community Broadcasting and you can find the radio programmes that we made together here. The project was funded by Bradford Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Arts Council.

LOREM

At a Glance

The 1970s was a time of Abba and Ford Cortinas, flares and long hair and Bradford was still a major textile producer. There were hundreds of mills across the district and they produced everything from fine worsted suit material to flock for wallpaper and fabric for funeral gloves.

Since 1970, most of Bradford’s mills have closed. Some have been pulled down and others tragically burnt down. Many historic mill buildings still remain and some have become offices, factories and apartments. Others stand derelict, waiting for a new lease of life. A small number are still in business, keeping Bradford’s textile industry alive.

Thousands of people worked in the mills doing all kinds of jobs. There were designers and doffers, weavers and washers, menders and spinners, drivers and managers, sales people and spinners. Many millworkers were new arrivals from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Eastern Europe. They came and found jobs in a complex supply chain producing fabrics used all over the world. They all had interesting and different stories to tell and we have put together a selection of soundbites for you to explore on this site.

The Importance of Bradford’s Woollen Industry

Paul Mear

Paul Mear | Transcript

The mills in Bradford…the woollen industry was a crucial industry to this country. So we’d lots of mills in Bradford, hence Bradford used to be covered in a big black cloud of smoke, there were so many mills going. We had what they called the Wool Exchange, which is where people bought and sold wool, not just here in this country but all over…in Australia… all over the world. So this was the hub of the industry in this country. And things were transported down in wagons, and things like that. Earlier on they were transported by boats, and horse and cart, which used to take weeks. But it was a big industry in this country, with all the business in the UK coming through Bradford. So we’d more millionaires in Bradford, at one time, than in London.

Industrial Museum Rainbow School - Practicing on a Loom

Multiple Generations in Bradford’s Wool Trade

Dan Lee

Dan Lee | Transcript

Certainly when I speak to my dad, definitely he talks about plenty of his uncles working at Woolcombers as overseers. And obviously my gran working at the Wool Board in the canteen there. And I had aunts that used to work as overlookers, menders and burlers and that kind of stuff. So yeah, if you lived in Bradford, a good portion of your family would have been in the wool trade in some form or other.

Welcome to the Lost Mills and Ghost Mansions Learning and Information Zone. Discover how Bradford’s once vibrant textile industry has dwindled from over 350 working mills to less than 30. Many people know of Bradford’s Victorian mills and the people who worked in them, but the district’s more recent textile history is often ignored. Find out about the places, the people and their stories of work and play from the 1970s onwards.

We have visited communities and individuals across the Bradford District to record their textile memories. You can find most of them on this website. Some are hilarious, some are serious and some are plain incredible. Over 80 hours of recordings tell stories of the working day, skills that were learnt and lifelong friendships that were made. There are stories of romance, accidents, arguments, industrial disputes, food and fun, laughter and tears. Together they show the human side of working life in Bradford.

Barkerend Mill Photo: Richard Freeman

Who We Are

509 Arts is based in Shipley, Bradford and we work with communities to tell their stories. We have created plays, operas and exhibitions about many things, including car love, climate change and cycling stories to the devastating floods of 2015, memorable landscapes and growing old in Bradford.

The Layout of Knowle Mill

Christopher Ackroyd | TBA Photograph: Bradford Museums Knowle Mill (Formerly Heatons of Keighley)

Christopher Ackroyd | Transcript

Now, if you look at the mill – I think it’s five storeys. And the shape of the mill reflects the processes. They take the raw material up to the top and then floor by floor it gets finer and finer. On the ground floor they are spinning fine, super quality thread – worsted thread. And then it’s out of the door. So the lift is the crucial central spine.

Northern Broadside did theatre productions in the derelict parts of the mill. When I was in there, I was thinking, ‘I wonder if this is the room where my grandad worked?’

Mark McGlinchey

Grandson to Mill Worker

Discover More

Lost Mills

Contributors

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Ghost Mansions

I know that Robert Clough - he had a big mansion, and he donated a Christmas tree for the people of Keighley one year. Well, I won't be swayed on this at all. Particularly on a Friday night, when everybody else had gone home,...

Do It Yourself

Photograph: Alan Dix | Sangat Centre at Bradford Industrial Museum I think what people should do is show an interest in local history because one day (and I hope this never happens) there won’t be people like you, and there won’t be people like me, who...

Mediawall

Photo by unknown IPLost Mills & Ghost Mansions Media WallLorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation...

Textiles Today

Photographs: Laxtons' state-of-the-art spinning machinery in Baildon by Tim Smith Two years ago [in 2022], I saw this job. And I rang them up and said ‘I’m looking for a job as a textile spinner.’ They interviewed me, and they told me, ‘Oh, this is the machine,...

Changing Ways

Photograph: Mark Stevenson | Dalton Mill and Clock Tower I could see at that time that the mills were starting to close around Keighley all over the town and I thought ‘I need to be moving on somewhere’ and that's when I left in 1975 and joined the fire service....

Time Off

Photograph: Jaz OldhamPhotograph: Harold Heppleston and Colleagues from Kellett Woodman, shared by daughter Patricia CrabtreePhotograph: In Saltaire there were lots and lots of foreign people. There were hundreds from Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, like me. Everyone...

Research & Map

Photograph: I grew up next to Marriner’s and I actually watched it burn down. It would have been in the ‘70s. I was in my grandma's house when the fire started ‘cos she lived round the corner. And I watched it burn down stood next to Dr Who off the telly at the time....

Rights & Wrongs

Photographs: Bill Morris, former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (centre) and Muhammad Rasab (right), one of the leaders in the racial discrimination complaints against John Haggas Ltd, onstage at the Trade Union Congress Annual...

Diverse workforce

Photograph: Bradford Museums & GalleriesPhotograph: Bradford Museums & GalleriesPhotograph: Jazz Oldham The supervisors were white, whilst the machinists were Asians: Pakistani, Bengali and Indians. All very friendly. People looked out for each other and...

Working life

Photograph: Tim Smith | Lifting hanks of wool from a dyeing vat at Harrison Gardner and Company in Bradford. Established in 1901 the firm are dyers for the carpet, hand knitting and hosiery industries.Yorkshire has always been at the centre of England’s first great...