Aerial Photo from 1940s
Shrewsbury in the 1790s • The Wool Trade which had been the backbone of Shrewsbury’s economy since the Middle Ages was in decline. • Two leading wool merchants were the Benyon brothers, Thomas (1762-1833) and Benjamin (1763 – 1834) who were Wool Merchants of Quarry Place. • A Canal was being built to bring coal to Shrewsbury from the East Shropshire Coalfield. John Marshall 1765-1845
New Ventures, New Players • John Marshall of Leeds transformed linen manufacture from a domestic activity to a factory based industry • Marshall pioneered the mechanisation of flax spinning and had rapidly become the leading figure in the flax industry. • In 1793 the Benyon Brothers entered into partnership with John Marshall. The partnership initially invested in mills in Leeds, completing a second mill in 1795. John Marshall 1765-1845
Moving to Shrewsbury • After a FIRE at their new mill in Leeds, the Benyons and Marshall decided to build a mill in Shrewsbury. • The partners purchased a site on the northern outskirts of town , alongside the Canal which was under construction
A Key New Partner Took Charles Bage (1752- 1822) a Surveyor and Wine Merchant, into the new venture. Bage was part of the circle of scientific engineers, iron founders, industrialists and intellectuals that gave Shropshire its technological cutting edge at this time.
Using Iron – the key to a fireproof mill? Bage corresponded with William Strutt of Derbyshire who had built a mill with iron columns supporting protected wooden beams. The Reynolds Brothers of Ketley Iron Works provided Bage with the results of tests on the structural qualities of iron. Strutt had supported wooden beams on his iron columns. Bage designed iron beams cast so that brick arches could be sprung from them.
The World’s First Iron Framed Building. The frame members were cast at William Hazeldine’s new foundry at Coleham. Hazeldine became Thomas Telford’s supplier of choice. • On Sept 1 st , 1797 the Shrewsbury Chronicle reported that “A very important improvement has just been made in the building of manufactories liable to danger from fire, by Messrs. Benyon and Bage..[They] have just finished a spacious Flax-spinning Mill, which is fire-proof. The materials consist wholly of brick and iron: the floors being arched, and the beams and pillars being formed of cast iron”
Inside the first iron framed building in the world
The Site Develops Rapidly 1805 By 1805 the site included : • An iron framed flax warehouse built in that year • A timber framed ‘hackling block’, the Cross Mill, for preparing the flax • A packing warehouse • A Dye house and Stove house • A Stables and Smithy. The first Apprentice house and the clerks’ house were in St Michael’s Street, just to the south.
The Site Develops Rapidly 1811 In 1811 the original hackling block burned down and was rebuilt as the present iron framed Cross Mill, with subtle improvements in the jointing arrangements between the beams and the columns, as Bage developed his original idea. The buildings were first lit by gas from their own gasworks in 1811 and in 1812 the present apprentice house was built.
A Working Community Develops As well as building the mill, the partners also constructed four blocks of cluster houses. Each block contained four dwellings, and they were leased at an annual rent of £80 to accommodate supervisors and skilled employees. This was the beginning of a process by which Spring Gardens, the area enclosed by the Shrewsbury Canal and the turnpike road between the Factory and Comet bridges, became filled by the 1850s with more than 100 dwellings A writer in 1825 drew attention to the rapid increase of buildings in the vicinity of the mill, noting that: “a great part of the way from the canal to the Old Heath is filling up with substantial houses for workmen"
The Apprentices and Child Labour The provision of an “Apprentice House” at the site form its earliest days highlights the importance of this source of low cost, easily managed labour. It appears that the majority of apprentices originated from the town’s own workhouse. A handful more came from the surrounding rural parishes, such as Mary Parsons from the parish of Prees, a parish which also regularly dispatched children to the Lancashire Cotton Mills. A few of the children came from much further afield including children from Ombersley in Worcestershire and several from Hull . In 1834 there were 92 children working there, 55 of them under 11. However, by this time they worked only part time and had some schooling between 9 and 11am and 3 and 5 pm .
The Labour Force and Working Conditions In the 19 th century the Flax Mill was one of the principal employers of labour in Shrewsbury. In 1813 the mill employed 433, and this increased to around 800 in the early 1840s. Many of these were women and children. Jonathon and Samuel Downe started work at the mill in 1814 at the age of 7 and 1813 at the age of 10. They described boys knocked down with straps and dipped into cisterns if they appeared drowsy during their 15 hours shifts. However it would appear that discipline within the factory was often achieved by dismissal or the threat of dismissal rather than punishment. In 1821 it was recorded that: "... everyone, manager, overseers, mechanics, oilers, spreaders, spinners and reelers, have their particular duty pointed out to them, and if they transgress, they are instantly turned off as unfit for their situation .”
Not Shrewsbury but a Marshall Mill in Leeds
Ditherington Mill? Castlefields Mill?
Ditherington? Castlefields?
Letterhead for Castlefields Mill – built by Benyons 1803. Part of the warehouse, to the right, survives in Severn Street.
The Flax Mill waxes and wanes. The Flax Mill changed over time : • Heckling Mechanised • Wet Spinning introduced • Increasing concentration on production of thread • A succession of ever more powerful Steam Engines. A replacement Dye house in the 1850s was the last major investment. In 1886 the mill closed and the company was wound up.
A New Life as a Maltings Site bought by William Jones The Conversion 1896-7 • A Kiln was inserted • A lean-to extension was built next to the canal • Concrete was poured onto the floors • Steeping Tanks were smashed through the floors • 2/3 of the windows were blocked and the others reduced and given shutters
A series of photographs from the 1980’s showing malting process. Here Barley is being fed into a steep tank to start the process
From steep tanks into ‘Boby’ – named after the manufacturer Robert Boby Ltd of Bury St Edmunds began life as an ironmonger in the 1850s. By the 1870s it had expanded into the manufacture of agricultural implements such as winnowing and grain cleaning machinery, malting and milling equipment and machinery for processing flax. The building was the biggest factory in Bury St Edmunds, employing nearly 200 men. Boby’s company prospered at a time when Britain was known as “the workshop of the world”.
Boby in use – laying out the wet barley in the canal side lean-to
Collecting up the germinated barley. By this time mechanised with cable from electric motors pulling the plough. Cable controlling the motor lies on top
Filling the kiln
The end of the line – collecting up the malt in the Kiln
Land Ownership of the Masterplan site
The Masterplan
Friends activities – a very busy and successful 2 years
A great day at the Cosford Jubilee celebrations
Stories about our journey
Flaxivity – our youth activity project; next door to the heritage
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