THE recent news that Walk Mill, near Low Bridge, Keighley, could be demolished and redeveloped heralds yet another phase in this centuries-old industrial site, writes Robin Longbottom.

It is probable that there's been a mill there since Tudor times and the name is a clue to its original use.

Until the early 18th century a woollen cloth called kersey was made in the Keighley area. This fabric was woven on a narrow loom from locally-grown wool and had to be finished by a process known as fulling, or walking. When the cloth came off the loom it was little more than a loose web of fibres and had to be felted to give it substance and durability. The felting process was done by shrinking it in a tub containing a mixture of water and fuller’s earth. Originally a man stood in the tub and walked upon the folded cloth to felt it and afterwards it was stretched on a tenter frame and left to dry. However, during the late Medieval period, the process of fulling was mechanised and the ‘walkers’ were gradually replaced by heavy wooden trip hammers powered by waterwheels.

In the early 18th century, the manufacture of worsted cloth began to replace the old kersey industry and fulling mills in the Keighley district fell out of use. When Walk Mill became redundant it was bought by an enterprising man called Joseph Stell. He belonged to a local family and by 1750 he was setting up water-powered machinery to make narrow silk tape for ribbons and trimming clothing.

Not satisfied with concentrating solely on manufacturing, he also went into the property business, a course that led him into serious financial trouble. To alleviate his cashflow problems, he turned to passing off counterfeit gold coins, and when the tools to make them were found at Walk Mill his fate was sealed. It was a capital offence to forge coins of the realm and Stell paid the ultimate price and was hanged at York in 1768.

Following his conviction, the mill was forfeited to the Crown and in 1776 it was offered for sale. John Craven, another local man, perhaps encouraged by the success of Richard Arkwright’s water frame for spinning cotton, bought Walk Mill. In 1783 he went into partnership with Thomas Brigg of Guard House and Abraham Shackleton of Braithwaite and built a three-storey cotton mill on the site. This mill stood at right angles to the River Worth and was powered by a waterwheel fed directly from the river via a broad goit. When Shackleton died and Brigg left the partnership, Craven abandoned cotton and by 1820 was spinning worsted yarn.

The old cotton mill was extended and later in the century additional mill buildings and a weaving shed were built. A steam engine was also installed to supplement water power. The Craven family remained at Walk Mill until about 1880 when they relocated all their production to Dalton Mills in Keighley. Walk Mill was then taken by Ira Ickringill & Co Ltd. By the end of the century, they occupied four mills in Keighley and one in Bradford, making Walk Mill part of one of the biggest worsted spinning companies in the world. Ickringill’s remained at Walk until 1920 when they centralised their business at Legrams Mill in Bradford. After their departure the buildings were occupied by various tenants, including James T Sutcliffe & Company, Walk Weaving Company and the British Wool Weaving Company. More recently it has been occupied by several different businesses.

Today nothing remains of the original cotton mill, which had been gutted by fire in 1896. Following the fire, it was reduced to a single-storey building and that was finally demolished in the 1970s.