Robin Longbottom examines the extraordinary life of a Keighley female pioneer from the 18th and early 19th centuries

IN the early 1930s an area of Keighley on Damside, opposite the present Royal Hotel, was demolished as part of the town’s slum clearance programme.

One of the properties that was knocked down was a decaying block of tenements known as the Barrack. However, a stone tablet set into the wall indicated that it had not been built for use as dwellings, and that it had originally been a mill.

The tablet read ‘Betty Hudson Rebuilt this Mill in the Year 1802’. Betty was one of several extraordinary and enterprising women who contributed to the economy of the town in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She was born in 1744, the daughter of William Brigg, a Keighley carpenter. He had the foresight, unusual for a tradesman of the period, to have his children schooled. The advantages of being literate in the 18th century were enormous and provided a tremendous advantage for those anxious to improve their lives.

When Betty married James Hudson, an uneducated weaver, in 1764 she was already the mother of a daughter called Mary. In 1771 James was running an alehouse, which his literate wife would have kept the books for, brewed and managed, whilst he concentrated on weaving. The property was leased from Lord George Cavendish.

However, during the 1780s they turned to spinning cotton in cottages that they had purchased near the old Corn Mill Bridge at Damside. As there was no motive power available they must have been operating spinning jennies. Jennies had been invented by James Hargreaves of Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, and were multiple-spindled hand-powered machines. They were ideal for use in an existing property that had been converted into a small spinning mill.

When her husband died in 1792, Betty continued to run the mill and proved to be an astute businesswoman. She was so successful that in 1802 she replaced the old building with a small purpose-built mill measuring 45 feet long and 30 feet wide, and three storeys high. As there was no water power available, Betty installed a 14hp beam engine to run steam-powered spinning frames. The engine would have been located on the gable of the mill and power transferred to the machinery via an external crank with a large flywheel. The new mill had 12 frames of 64 spindles each and two of 96 spindles, together with preparing machinery consisting of 13 carding engines, and drawing and roving frames. A cottage for a manager probably occupied part of the ground and middle floor.

When the mill was up and running Betty appointed her eldest grandson, Thomas, to manage the business. Her daughter, Mary, had married Thomas Parker, a Keighley innkeeper, and they raised three sons – Thomas, James and William – and a daughter, Betty. Mary’s husband also went into cotton spinning and took a mill at Arncliffe in Littondale.

Betty Hudson died in November, 1804, and left an estate valued at £3,500 – the equivalent of approximately £500,000 today. Her grandson, Thomas, inherited Damside Mill together with a house and cottages. Her other grandchildren received financial legacies. By the time of her death her second grandson James was established as a cotton spinner at High Mill in Gargrave. Her third grandson, William, was also a cotton spinner and in partnership at a mill in Hebden, near Grassington.

Betty left her philosophy on life inscribed on the now lost stone tablet on Damside Mill: "And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands" – a quote from Thessalonians 4:11-12.

Unfortunately, her legacy did not last. Her grandson Thomas went bankrupt in 1807 and the mill at Damside was ultimately converted into dwellings.