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| Embsay in 1907: National Library of Scotland |
By the time Alice Bonny married John Dewhurst, he and his brothers had been taken into partnership by their father and the business had become Thomas Dewhurst & Sons
- they had expanded the business, taking the leases of two water-powered cotton mills in the village of Embsay, a mile or two to the north-east of Skipton – its population was 861 in 1822
- the mills had been purpose-built only 20 years earlier and lay side by side at Sandbank and Mill Holme
- we can get an idea of the size of the mills and the water wheels of this time in the advertisement in 1823 for the mill George Balme was using to spin worsted – it was modern-built, 3 stories high and with 2 water wheels of 23 feet and 15 feet in diameter, using "a good and constant Supply of Water ... Hands are very plentiful, at moderate Wages"
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| Scalegill Mill today (a holiday rental property) |
John & Alice moved to Embsay in 1816 to live at Mill Holme and run the business. John's younger brother James moved to Embsay too, and soon afterwards he married Elizabeth Shiers of Threapland farm at Rylstone near Cracoe. Before long, there were four little cousins in Embsay – John & Alice's Jane and Bonny and James & Elizabeth's Benjamin and Eleanor.
And in the same year of 1816, Thomas Dewhurst retired to Skipton and left the business to his sons – it was now John Dewhurst & Bros.
In 1819 the three brothers bought the lease of a cotton mill at Scalegill on the River Aire north of Kirkby Malham, ten miles to the north-west of Skipton. Scalegill mill had been converted from a corn mill in 1792 but rebuilt in 1795 – the Dewhurst brothers refitted it and their cousin Isaac managed it for them until his death in 1823.
So prospects were looking good for the Dewhurst family as 1819 came to an end.
And then, in March 1820, Thomas died, aged 71. But much worse followed. On 5 July 1820, James died after a short illness. He was 25 years old. He left his widow Elizabeth with two very small children and in the early months of pregnancy. Their son James was born the next year. I think little James died – I can find no trace of him.
For a short while, Elizabeth took James's place in the partnership, but at the end of 1821 she left and the business became John & Isaac Dewhurst. A few years later, she remarried in Bolton le Moors – she didn't return to Skipton.
In spite of losing James's capital and expertise, John and Isaac continued to expand the business.
In 1822, they bought the lease of a water-powered cotton mill at Airton, about 1½ miles south of Kirkby Malham. In 1818, when the lease had last come up for sale, it was described as "a substantial stone built cotton mill", 72ft 3ins long and 31ft wide, with a water wheel 12ft in diameter and 3ft broad. There was another water wheel 16ft in diameter and 6ft broad, and among the rest of the equipment, there were 17 spinning frames containing 1,632 spindles and 3 warping mills. The fall had been only about 8ft previously, but it had been increased to 16ft by a weir upstream. A selling point was that it was within 3 miles of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and 7 miles from Skipton.
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| Airton Mill right: the original cotton mill centre: the steam-powered mill built by John Dewhurst in 1836 |
By this point, in order to match the demand for yarn with locations where they could get the necessary labour and water power, John and Isaac were operating 4 spinning mills on 3 separate sites – the mills at Scalegill and Airton and two mills at Embsay. They employed handloom weavers and they had offices and warehouses in Skipton and Manchester. Manchester was their principal market, and they had there the use of a warehouse at 14 High Street.
John later blamed the rheumatism that stopped him riding – his favourite pastime – on the 40-odd mile ride he made each week to Manchester in all weathers for so many years.
Next: 17: John Dewhurst's Belle Vue Mill and the break with his brother Isaac
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