Airton Mill

The Airton mill was originally the site of the corn mill and when the site was bought by a group of businessmen in 1787 to spin cotton, they agreed to maintain the existing corn mill and built a new "Arkwright" style mill, which you can see on the right hand side of the photograph above. Isaac and John Dewhurst took over the mill in 1825 and added the "New Mill" on the left of the picture, about 1836. The enlarged business used a combination of water and steam power for the machinery, and a gas plant to supply the lighting.
Dewhirsts continued to run the mill until it ceased production in 1904, after a reorganisation within the English Sewing Cotton Company. In November 1910 an advertisement for the mill appeared in the The Manchester Guardian:

In 1918 the mill was sold to AE Jackson of Blackburn who started a sheet metal and general engineering business known as Airton Engineering Company. They were also electrical engineers and installed an electric generator driven by the waterwheel, which supplied the first electricity to homes in Airton. During the depression of the 1930s they went bankrupt. The mill was sold to Craven Freeholds who later resold it to John and Thomas Blackett who farmed at Scosthrop. In 1942 Reckitt & Coleman bought the mill and moved their Dettol disinfectant production, which was needed in great supply in the war, from the heavily bombed Hull area to the peace of Airton. During the war there was at least one accident when phenol leaked into the river killing all the fish.  Rob Foster remembers that his family collected some of these dead fish and soaking them in clean water in a bath for a few days, but when they cooked them they still tasted of Dettol, so they were boiled up and fed to the animals!  Later the company used it for storage. Finally in 1960, the mill came into the hands of the Sharp family who used it for use in their poultry breeding business. The mill finally ceased industrial usage in 1972 when it was sold for the last time as one unit and converted into flats.

Airton Mill dam and the river Aire, Scosthrop	Postcard showing the interior of the mill
The men and boys - late 19th century	Ex-employees photographed when the mill closed in 1904

The following is the entry for Airton mill from the book Yorkshire Cotton by George Ingle:

The old corn mill was for sale in 1785 and was bought by William Alcock who was a banker in Skipton. Alcock sold an interest in the mill to Margaret Williams, a widow of Kirkby Malham, and several others. The corn mill was then used by John Brown for cotton spinning about 1786. The partners then built a new mill alongside especially for cotton spinning. This was built about 1789 and taken by Robert Thornton. Thornton joined a partnership at Castle Mill in Knaresborough that year but continued cotton spinning at Airton Mill until 1795 when he was bankrupt. The cotton spinning machinery used by Thornton was then for sale. It included six carding engines, two drawing frames, two roving frames and six spinning frames with forty-eight spindles each.
In 1797 the mill was owned by John Williams of Dartford in Kent, who was Margaret Williams' son-in-law, and John Hartley of Airton while the firm leasing the mill was Hartley, Maher & Co. The mill and machinery were insured for £1,000 while Hartley & Maher insured their stock for £500. Williams leased the cotton and corn mills to William Ellis from 1st May 1803 for a term of thirty-one years at a rent of £113 pa. William Ellis transferred the lease to John Greenwood and Lister Ellis, the Keighley cotton spinners and merchants, in December 1807. As they only rented the mill they only insured the mill work, machinery and stock for the following sums in 1808:

Millwork	£ 200
Machinery	£ 900
Stock	£ 400
Total	£ 1,500

In 1817 there was a crisis in the Greenwood & Ellis family businesses and all their properties and leases were for sale but none were sold. Airton Mill was then seventy-two feet long by thirty-one feet wide and was equipped with a twelve foot by three foot water wheel. Greenwood & Ellis had also installed a sixteen foot by six foot wheel as they had increased the fall of water to the mill. Their preparing and spinning machinery was also for sale and included seventeen frames with one thousand six hundred and thirty-two spindles. John Greenwood & Co continued cotton spinning at Airton Mill until 1825 when the lease and machinery were taken by John and Isaac Dewhirst from Skipton. By 1837 James Garforth had taken the mill. In 1836 a new mill was added with steam power and gas lighting. The mill has now been turned into flats.

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