Description and History of Site:-
In 1973 Hatcher noted - Large mill of 6 bays and 3 storeys plus basement. Large quoins largish vertical rectangular windows. Two chimney stacks at north gable.Originally built in 1783 as a water powered cotton mill, to the basic design developed by Richard Arkwright, this 3 story mill was converted to a sawmill 1879. In 1920 a turbine and generator was installed and the mill generated electricity for Gayle and Hawes.

There was already a corn and fulling mill on the site, but this new cotton spinning mill to the 'Arkwright' design was built in 1784. Its original measurements for the three storey mill were 47 1/2 feet by 28 feet within the walls, though as it was built on a slope there were some lower rooms. The mill was changed over to spin flax some time before 1806. After the bankruptcy of the flax spinning firm of Readman & Walker in 1813 the Routh family, who had built the mill, took it back to spin woollen yarn. Wool and worsted spinning continued until 1856, after which it became a saw mill. Built 1784 as water powered cotton mill, by Oswald and Thomas Routh who were local land owners and hosiers
as a speculation in the expanding mechanised cotton industry. As they knew little about this new industry they had to employ a manager. The mill was for sale or to let in 1789 and changed to spin flax being soon occupied by John Readman with partners Tristram and James Walker. They also had some flax spinning machinery in Kirk
Bridge Corn Mill near Bedale. The partners were bankrupt in 1813. The Rouths then started to spin woollen yarn in this mill for use in their expanding domestic knitting trade.In 1830 the mill was leased to E & A Knowles of Low Row in Swaledale, but they moved their machinery to Haverdale Mill and Gayle Mill was advertised to let or for sale as a worsted spinning mill in the early 1840s

Converted to saw mill in 1879 when the 18ft diameter waterwheel was replaced by a Williamson Vortex water turbine, which could be uncoupled from the sawmill and used to drive a dynamo to provide lighting at night. In 1917 William Handley Burton & Sons were employed here to install, on behalf of the Hawes Electric Lighting Company, "new plant in an extension at the side of the mill to house new machinery which included large metal wheels weighing 3 tons. The crane broke when lifting them into place and W Burton was injured" (Alderson 1980). There seems little doubt that this refers to a twin flywheel gas engine, with a belt drive to a dynamo inside the mill, as the foundations are still there, together with a remnant of a curved segment of vitrified firebrick which could have been part of the internal lining of a gas producer. Also in the mill are 2 electrical control panels, one with a marble base, the other with a slate base, as well as a fuse and switchboard on a wooden base, indicating the different stages of electricity generation.

A second turbine and generator were installed in 1920, when the Askrigg Electric Lighting Company fitted a Gilkes Francis water turbine directly driving a dynamo made by Hall & Co. T G & A Metcalfe bought the mill in 1921, and carried wires to Hawes to power their joinery works machinery at Town Head. Up to the 1960s, to control the speed of their mortising machine, they used an electrode suspended in an acid bath as a variable resistance. The mill later changed from direct current to alternating current at 230 volts and continued until nationalisation of the electricity industry and the arrival of the grid in Hawes in 1948. The Hawes Electric Lighting Company annual report of 1942 states that annual operating costs included coal at £330 and oil at £90, which indicates that steam and/or gas engines were the primary source of power, followed by oil engines.

No details of the further textile use of this mill are available. Restoration began in the early 2000s and the mill was opened as a museum, with working machinery, in 2008.

Further Reading and References:-
Ingle, G. Yorkshire cotton: the Yorkshire cotton industry, 1780-1835. Carnegie, 1997.
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.
Aspin, C. The water spinners. Helmshore Local History Society, 2003.
Hay T. T., 2000, Hydroelectricity generation in the Yorkshire Dales. Cleveland Industrial Archaeologist Number 26 pp 35 - 53.
Gayle Mill Trust web site http://www.gaylemill.org.uk/
CIAS research Report no 26, Tom Hay. 2000
YAHS - Hatcher Card Index. Research funded by the Yorkshire Arts Association 1972
Hatcher J, The Industrial Architecture of Yorkshire, 1985
Hollowood R, The Gayle Mill Story, Souvenir Brochure.
http://www.countysignpost.co.uk/component/content/article/66-/643-gayle-mill?
https://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/eng-woodfuel-yandh-gayle-mill-cs.pdf/$FILE/eng-woodfuel-yandh-gayle-mill-cs.pdf

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Key Words :- water textile mill cotton spinning flax saw turbine

Viewing the Site :- Museum, open to the public.

Address :- Gayle Lane, Gayle, Hawes, North Yorkshire
Grid Ref :- SD 87118 89385
Co-ordinates :- Lat 54.299911 , Long -2.199445
Local Authority :- Richmondshire District Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - North Riding
Site Status :- Listed - Grade II*
Historic England List No - 1132000, 1301235,
Site Condition :- Site refurbished to industrial / commercial use
Site Dates :- 1784 - c1994
Record Date :- 24 September 2017

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © George Ingle