Description and History of Site:-
A small fragment of this once very extensive site remains on the edge of Blubberhouses Cricket Club. Substantial sections of the mill race, running north for about 1km to the low and high dams, may still be followed quite easily. Situated in the Washburn valley, it is possible that an early fulling mill existed on this site from 1526. "West House Mills" is depicted on the 1854 OS map (but not on later editions) as "Flax & Corn". The flax mill was built in 1797.
Giles and Goodall regard this as having been a good example of an 'integrated' flax mill; ie one in which the processing of the flax through to the production of finished cloth was all carried out on the same site.
Dryhouse, warehouse and bleachworks added between 1820 and 1843.
Used briefly for cotton spinning (1850-1851) and silk spinning (1856-1864).

Further Reading and References:-
Giles, C and Goodall, I H. Yorkshire textile mills: the buildings of the Yorkshire textile industry 1770-1930. HMSO, 1992.
Ingle, G. Yorkshire Dales textile mills: a history of all the textile mills in the Yorkshire Dales from 1784 to the present day. Royd Press, 2009.
http://www.raynerfamily.org.uk/various/scaife/

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Key Words :- textile corn flax linen mill

Address :- Hardisty Hill, Blubberhouses, Otley, North Yorkshire, LS21 2PL
Grid Ref :- SE 16779 55511
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.995368 , Long -1.745551
Local Authority :- Harrogate Borough Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Site redeveloped to industrial / commercial use
Site Dates :- 1797 -
Record Date :- 5 November 2017

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Robert Vickers