Thwaite Mills is an industrial museum in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is a fully restored working water-powered mill built in 1823-25, harnessing the power of the

River Aire The River Aire is a major river in Yorkshire, England, in length. The ''Handbook for Leeds and Airedale'' (1890) notes that the distance from Malham to Howden is direct, but the river's meanderings extend that to . Between Malham Tarn and Ai ...

, and claims to be "one of the best last remaining examples of a water-powered mill in Britain". It is administered by

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the majority of l ...

through

Leeds Museums & Galleries Leeds Museums and Galleries is a museum service run by the Leeds City Council in West Yorkshire. It manages nine sites and is the largest museum service in England and Wales run by a local authority. Visitor attractions * Abbey House Museum *Ki ...

. The mill, the manager's house and three associated buildings are all grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The first known mill on the site was a

fulling Fulling, also known as felting, tucking or walking ( Scots: ''waukin'', hence often spelled waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of woven or knitted cloth (particularly wool) to elimin ...

mill built in 1641, as part of the local industry of manufacturing woollen cloth. In 1823–25 the

Aire and Calder Navigation The Aire and Calder Navigation is the canalised section of the Rivers Aire and Calder in West Yorkshire, England. The first improvements to the rivers above Knottingley were completed in 1704 when the Aire was made navigable to Leeds and the ...

company acquired the mill and redeveloped the site. Two new large waterwheels were built, and the site comprised the mill building, the manager's house, stables, workshop, warehouse and workers' cottages. The cottages were demolished in 1968, but the other buildings remain intact. The mill was used for a range of purposes. The firm of W and E Joy used it to crush seeds for lubrication and lighting oil, and imported woods were crushed for the dyeing industry. The Horn family, who took over the mill in 1872, used it to crush

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

and

china stone China stone is a medium grained, feldspar-rich partially kaolinised granite characterized by the absence of iron-bearing minerals.chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

to make "whiting" for industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to whitewash, then barytes for the paint industry, and until 1975 for the production of putty. Set on an island between the

and the Aire and Calder Navigation, the mill was as self-sufficient as its owners could make it. There were workshops, orchards, arable land and pasture, and the mill did not have an electricity supply until 1986, instead generating its own power from the two water wheels and a Marshall engine which was purchased to power the Raymond Mill in the 1930s.

Museum

In January 1975, the weir burst and the waterwheels stopped turning. The Thwaite Mills Society was formed by volunteers in 1976 to preserve and restore this important site, and received financial support from the then West Yorkshire County Council. The river weir was rebuilt, and the museum opened in 1990. It is now run by

in partnership with

Yorkshire Water Yorkshire Water is a water supply and treatment utility company servicing West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of North Lincolnshire, most of North Yorkshire and part of Derbyshire, in England. The company has its ...

. As well as the functioning waterwheels, the mill contains a collection of machinery used at various times. Visitors are led on guided tours of the mill building. The manager's house has been restored to reflect life there in the 1940s, before electricity was installed, and is visited self-guided. The museum site includes a steam crane from 1946 and wildlife areas. A variety of special events is held at the museum.

References

External links

* * *
12 panoramic views of Thwaite Mills from VR Leeds
* {{West Yorkshire museums Museums in Leeds Industry museums in England Watermills in England Textile museums in the United Kingdom

History

Museum

See also

References

External links