Скачать или смотреть Tale of the Failed Scammonden Mill

In the 1860s, in the valley of Scammonden formerly Broadlee and Deanhead lived a community of yeoman who lived from the land on rough farmsteads. The adjoining larger towns of Halifax and Huddersfield were bustling spinning and weaving towns reaping the rewards of the textile industry. It was at this time that John Walker, a local businessman proposed the idea of building a mill in the valley to support the community and spread prosperity. In 1861 he helped establish the Scammonden Cotton Spinning Mill Ltd. What would follow would be a tale of hardship and strife and skulduggery.

To raise capital for the building of the mill, a share scheme was drawn up and locals were encouraged to invest in the mill, of which many did. Shares were offered at £5 and minimum investments were £20. On Saturday 22 June 1861 by John Kenworthy Walker, the founder, laid the first foundation stone at the Commercial Mill in accompaniment of a 7000 strong crowd who had gathered. People had flocked from the adjoining villages of Halifax and Huddersfield. The Deanhead national school led a procession and a Miss Shaw of Barkisland led a solo vocalist performance to the 7000 in attendance.

Work continued on the mill and by 1865, money for investment had dried up and the project came to a grinding halt. In August 1865, the shareholders met at Pole Moor Baptist Chapel and decided to go into voluntary liquidation a terrible blow to all the shareholders who had risked so much and lost everything. One of those poor souls was local Deanhead resident and retired 67 year old farmer Joseph Dyson. He had invested £150 of his hard earned life savings. After the company went into liquidation, Joseph could no longer live with himself. He proceeded to clamber to the third floor, lantern in hand through the now abandoned mill and throw himself off the building. Others are believed to have followed his desperate example.

By 1867 the mill was bought, by a mystery buyer at The Cock Inn in Halifax, for £4,000. The mill alone had cost £14,000 to build.

The most likely reason for the mill never opening was the shortage of cotton coming from America due to the American Civil War (1861-1865). Cotton imports into this country fell by 50% in 1862 and only recovered by 1870. Big investors saw no point in throwing good money after bad. The mill project did not collapse because the mill was in the wrong place or had no access road, but rather because it was built at the worst possible time.

Other reasons have suggested that the company hoped that a branch of the nearby Lancashire and Yorkshire railway would link the site enabling easy access to site for shipping of goods but this idea was rejected in 1865.

Some say that ghosts of the Deanhead Valley still wander the ruins of the abandoned Commercial Mill. Could it be the ghost of desperate Joseph Dyson, the man who had invested so much to better the lives of himself and his neighbours with hope of a little in return? You decide.

Sources:
Huddersfield Exposed Link
https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/Com....

Huddersfield Examiner Article
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/h...

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