Description and History of Site:-

Large building three storeys 5 bays plus wheelhouse added on. Very fine stonework with thin mortar joints. Refurbished and apparently in mixed use (2018).Marked on the OS 25" map of 1910 as a sawmill. In 1912 John Cockburn and John Leyland each put up £207 in cash for the "cost of installation of electric light in Bainbridge village, being the value of turbine, battery, generator, cable and works" and they became the proprietors of Bainbridge Electric Lighting Company (Capital Account 1914). William Handley Burton of Askrigg installed the equipment, including a Gilkes Vortex water turbine, in place of the mill waterwheel. This drove a dc dynamo, generating 6kW at 110 volts, which charged the battery and provided electric light for the village. The business prospered; by 1914-15 the accounts already showed a credit trading balance of £2.14s 5d on a turnover of £31.16s 9d, with £5 put into a capital depreciation account in Hawes Bank and £5 handed to John Leyland for "attending to turbine etc".

The battery consisted of a number of glass tanks, similar to those used for keeping tropical fish, filled with sulphuric acid in which lead plates were suspended, being kept apart with glass tubes. It was used to store electricity during the day and supply electricity at night if demand was greater than the output from the dynamo. Renewals and replacements of the battery were significant items of expenditure, as in 1922 "Installation of Battery" cost £163 3s 8d and again in 1926 £268.15s 5d, the money being drawn mainly from the capital depreciation account.

In 1929 a letter from the Electricity Commissioners in London, who had statutory authority to regularise electricity generation, and distribution under the Electric Lighting Act of 1888, requested details of the company's "electric lines and works" so that the commissioners could decide whether of not the regulations should be "prescribed" in Bainbridge. In response the company listed its assets as: 10hp water turbine, 6kW dynamo, 450 ampere-hour battery (56 cells), 12 street lamps and 60 private consumers, adding the comment "very few poles used, mainly wrought iron brackets clamped to chimneys" (note on the back of a letter from the Electric Commissioners, 13 February 1929).

It would seem that because of its small size the company remained a "non-statutory electricity supply undertaking", i.e. not one subject to the regulations, which would have required a change from direct current to alternating current for supply to customers. In 1943 demand must have exceeded supply from the turbine and battery as a diesel engine was added; this was installed by Ernest Burton of Askrigg. In the late 1930s customers were charged 9d per unit for the first 100 units, 8d per unit for the next 100, and thereafter 7d per unit. These charges were similar to those made by the other local electricity generating companies. The Bainbridge company's turnover had risen to £240 per year of which half was profit, shared equally between the proprietors (Bainbridge Electric Lighting Company, accounts 1937).

In 1948 the British Electricity Authority took over the company and Ernest Burton became involved with ensuring that adequate compensation was paid to the owners of Bainbridge and other small companies in Wensleydale for "loss of their business as a going concern in an open market". This issue was not resolved until 1953 when the successor of the original proprietors settled for £1415, and the area was "on the grid" with the water turbine being used to drive a saw bench and planing machine.

Further Reading and References:-

YAS - Hatcher Card Index. Research funded by the Yorkshire Arts Association 1972.
Hatcher J, The Industrial Architecture of Yorkshire, Phillimore, 1985.
CIAS Research Report no 26, Tom Hay, 2000.

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Key Words :- watermill sawmill hydroelectric turbine

Viewing the Site :- Can be viewed from the public road or footpath

Address :- A 684 Leyburn Road, Bainbridge, Hawes, North Yorkshire, DL8 3EJ
Grid Ref :- SD 93460 90100
Co-ordinates :- Lat 54.306459 , Long -2.102011
Local Authority :- Richmondshire District Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - North Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Site in alternative industrial use
Contributor :- Daniel Balmforth - 16 May 2015

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Daniel Balmforth