Steve Gaunt Pontificates
Old Mill Buildings. Who needs 'Em?
Ok I am going to be controversial with this one (so what's different?).
First of all, for my multinational readers, I had better explain
what a mill is.
A mill is industrial premises, but usually the term refers to the
building rather that the company premises within it.
I believe the term originated from the buildings used to produce
flour in times gone by. The colloquial Flour Mill.
In Yorkshire when the textile industry started in the 19th century
the earliest factories were built at the side of streams in valley
bottoms and were thus called mills.
So what's the problem?
No one can dispute that the textile industry of Yorkshire is now
almost dead, and many old mill buildings lie empty.
Many of them are now in a decrepit state, however if someone suggest
that we should knock one down and reclaim the land for new building
housing or even recreation then the cry goes up 'Oh no you can't
knock that down that's part of our industrial heritage'.
And there lies the rub exactly.
What is this industrial heritage all about?
Well we were given a clue in the line of the 19th century poem,
which speaks of the 'Dark Satanic Mills'.
Do you think he was talking about something else surely he couldn't
have meant our industrial heritage?
Well no, he meant the edifices erected by the 19th century's capitalists.
These were people who believed that they had a right to live in
there grand houses in the countryside, whilst the common people
toiled impossible long shifts in the mills they erected.
There were no factory acts to protect the workers in those days
small children were often crushed to death in these places being
forced to clean out the dirt from under working machinery. '
In one case the mill caught fire and several young girls were burnt
to death.
Do you think the mill owner had provide the fire escapes that are
required today?
The floor of another mill collapsed under the weight of the machinery
Had this heritage building conformed to regulations on load bearing
or had it been slung up to maximise profits - which do you think?
Ok I think I have made my point.
Why try to preserve these mills, they are monuments to a way of
life that we are well rid of?
Yes preserve one or two of these building so we don't forget the
appalling conditions our ancestors had to put up with, convert some
to useful purposes, but any that are in the way of a better future
should go and soon.
Steve pontificates will be updated monthly.
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