Wreaks Mill, situated on the River Nidd at Birstwith, adjacent to a corn mill, was opened as a cotton spinning mill in the 1790s by Messrs Arthington and Blessard. Blessard sold out to Mr. Willet, who went bankrupt a few years later. In 1805, the mill was bought by a Keighley cotton spinner, John Greenwood, who ran it in partnership with William Ellis. The mill remained in the Greenwood family for over fifty years.
Little is known about its early history, but the mechanism on the mill race gates, dated 1822, indicates investment at that time. A witness, John Hannam who was born in 1787, testified before parliamentary enquiries into factory conditions in 1832 and 1833 that he started work at the mill "aged ten or less". The machines were roller-frames with 24 spindles each. In 1803, the mill had 1,400 spindles and 150 workers, including 38 on a night shift. According to Hannam, the mill was not well run, "because the overlookers did not understand the work very well."
By 1814, Wreaks was the last of the local cotton mills to persist with cotton, the others switching to flax. The following passage about the Greenwoods occurs in "The History of Harrogate and Knaresborough", edited by Bernard Jennings, "They built Swarcliffe Hall in Birstwith and established themselves as the local squires. Wreaks Mill may have been kept going for other than purely economic reasons."
According to Jennings, a key factor in the closing of the mill for cotton spinning was the blockade of the southern states and the consequent 'cotton famine' during the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865. At that time the mill employed some sixty workers.
The Greenwood family were central figures in chapel and church affairs in Birstwith, to explore this further, follow the links to Clapham Green Wesleyan Chapel and St. James', Birstwith on this site.
Thomas Wood took over a flour milling business from the Greenwoods and the Woods family was active as millers until after the First World War. There are excellent photographs of the flour mill at Wreaks in "Nidderdale Yesterday", by David Alred.
The mill is now owned by the Kerry Group, an Irish company manufacturing food ingredients.
View of the mill from the weir on the River Nidd.
The head of the mill race, with three sluice gates and their individual winding mechanisms.
Reference "The History of Nidderdale", edited by Bernard Jennings.