twaite mills

A new series of blogs on the mills by Paul Foster.

Thwaite mills is a working museum. A working mill
set up in the 1800s to grind stone to make putty
amongst other things.
Sittuated near Stourton in Leeds it stands
near the canal in pleasent surroundings.
During my 2 visits to the mill I found the staff
helpful and enthusiastic. A nice place indeed.
My only problem is lack of research material on
this mill. Not a great deal has been written about
this place.
Anyway, here we go.

The thing that stands out for me most of all
is the lifestyles the employees of the mill.
By Victorian standards it was a comfortable place
to work. Mind you, it was dangerous work and a few
people lost their lives. It was noisy and hard as well.
I use the word comfortable with reservation,
like sitting on a barrel of snakes rather that on
the teeth of a king cobra is comfortable

The workers lived in cottages and even had farm
animals.
The Horn family had several othe mills but where
no Benjamin Gotts.
By the way The Horns 15 year old Son died in the
mill setting up a peice of machinery.