Birks Mill in Walsden

Henry Hiley said that his Uncle Frank worked at Cockcroft's Mill in Walsden. This was Birks Mill, on Birks Lane near St Peter's Church.

We know that Frank's younger sister Annie was working as a Cotton Spinner at age 12, and it is likely that Frank and Martha Hannah themselves were working in the Mill at the same age. Most of the Hileys at that time living in Walsden who were working were employed in textile mills.

At one time there were over 30 textile mills in Todmorden and Walsden. The mills have all been converted for other purposes or stand disused, and the big industrial chimneys have almost all gone now.

Birks Mill dates from about 1800 and through the 1800s it was occupied by a number of owners. Originally a carding and spinning cotton mill, later owners concentrated on the spinning and manufacture of wool and worsted, a high-quality type of wool yarn. 

The lease was sold to John Cockcroft & Sons in 1899 and later the firm bought the mill and land. At that time the mill would have had a substantial local work force and been a busy place, situated next to the canal, loading and unloading goods, and keeping all the spindles and looms running. The owner was John Arthur Cockcroft, grandson of Henry, the first of the Cockcroft manufacturers and when he died in 1927 he left the mill to three of his five sons.

The name of another of his sons is remembered on the wall of a nearby house.

Production at the mill stopped in 1979. Among the products mainly produced at that time were bedspreads, the item Henry Hiley remembers his Uncle Frank making. Today, the mill stands derelict. 

Birks Mill

Birks Mill in recent times

© Copyright Alexander P Kapp and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Next time: the 1939 Register