Hutton Rudby 1859-1908: the Cleveland Sailcloth Mill

This follows the post Hutton Rudby 1834-1849: the Flax-Spinning Mill by the bridge

George Wilson was born in Newcastle in 1810, the son of James Wilson and Mary Straker.  He was one of a large family – I have found the names of three daughters (Jane, Matilda and Mary) and six sons (William, James, John, Henry, George and Edward) and there were possibly more.   There is an account of his family, including a portrait of his father James here, 

George Wilson comes to Hutton Rudby

George arrived in Hutton Rudby as a very young man in the 1830s.  His father worked for Messrs Clarke, Plummer & Co, linen manufacturers & spinners, for 37 years at their Northumberland Flax Mill at Ouseburn.  George himself came to Hutton Rudby as a clerk to the company.  His job was to put out work to the local handloom weavers, have the cloth bleached and send it north to the firm's warehouses in Newcastle.

As R P Hastings explains in Hutton Rudby: An Industrial Village c1700-1900 (1979) handloom weavers worked in shops or sheds attached to their cottages or rented nearby.  Generally, they were supplied with yarn by the manufacturer, to whom they returned the finished cloth.  Some linen went to the nearby markets, or to the ports at Stockton or Whitby, and some was sent by pack mule up to the Bigg Market in Newcastle.  It is said that there was stabling for 50 pack mules at the top of Enterpen.  

Bleaching needed plenty of water and stone troughs and, as the 18th century went on, more and more equipment and machinery.  Several local bleach grounds are known – there was one in Potto by 1700 and one in Hutton Rudby by 1727.  A bleach yard was marked near Sexhow Hall in the Sexhow Tithe Map.  A big bleaching enterprise existed at Crathorne, described by the Rev John Graves in 1808 as 

an extensive bleach-ground ... with a bleach-house, situated on the eastern brink of the Leven, (over a stone bridge of one arch,) at a little distance from, and nearly opposite to the village; which consists of two beetling mills, and a variety of other machinery, where linens are made up similar to the Irish.

In 1838 the cornmill at Rudby was also bleaching and dyeing yarn and thread.

Life in the village in the early 1830s can be seen very vividly in the story of the disappearance and supposed murder of the weaver William Huntley.  It can be found here in my book Remarkable, but still True: the story of the Revd R J Barlow and Hutton Rudby in the time of the cholera at Chapter 6: 1830: Suspicions of Murder and, as I say in that chapter, 

In the newspaper reports of the trial we can hear the actual voices of the villagers themselves, and their testimonies reveal a vivid picture of life at the time – lived under the scrutiny of close neighbours, often outside the houses, in the street. 

The past is brought alive: rising at dawn; shared loomshops in the yards; men drinking late at night in the kitchen of a public house; a labourer breaking stones at the roadside in return for parish relief; the local habit of poaching in the Crathorne game preserves; the little shops run by the women of the village in their own homes; the long distances people were accustomed to walk; the clothes they wore; how the village governed and policed itself; the emigration ships sailing from Whitby.

 In 1837 George Wilson went into partnership with a Mr Robinson and they took over the business in Hutton Rudby:

Newcastle Journal, 28 October 1837 

ROBINSON & WILSON,

(SUCCESSORS TO MESSRS CLARKE, PLUMMER & CO. AS) 

LINEN MANUFACTURERS,

AT HUTTON RUDBY, YORKSHIRE, AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE; 

BEG respectfully to acquaint their Friends that they have REMOVED their Stock from the Warehouse at the Northumberland Flax Mill, Ouse Burn, to a newly erected and commodious one at

No. 79, PILGRIM-STREET,

Where they intend to keep an extensive Assortment of every kind of LINEN GOODS OF CLEVELAND MANUFACTURE, for the accommodation of their Customers in this District, and where all Orders will be received and attended to from this Date.

Newcastle, Oct. 11th, 1837

George still had a warehouse in Pilgrim Street in 1864 – it is mentioned in the Shields Daily Gazette of 11 May 1864, when it was reported that his bookkeeper and manager had absconded after 26 years with the firm, taking with him at least £600 from the till.

On 9 June 1836, George Wilson married Ann Hutton in Newcastle; their son James Alder Wilson was born in 1837, followed by Allan Bowes Wilson in 1839.

Hard times for the handloom weavers

During the 1830s, the condition of handloom weavers was rapidly deteriorating.  Unemployment, falling wages and severe distress were feeding into growing political unrest and radicalism.  Resentment was increased by passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 which put an end to relief to the poor being paid through the parish and obliged them to enter the workhouse.  So a Royal Commission was set up in 1837 to enquire into the industry.

Sixteen Hutton Rudby operative weavers gave evidence, saying that, when the cost of winding, loom and shop (ie workshop) rent, sizing, grease, candles, brushes, shuttles etc had been deducted, an average weekly wage of 11s 6½d was reduced to 9s 6d.  This was higher than the average wage in many neighbouring linen villages and at least Hutton still had 157 looms at work making “linen cloth, ticks, drills, checks, and diapers” [R P Hastings:  Hutton Rudby, An Industrial Village]

All the same, conditions were bad and it is not surprising that in the spring of 1839 one of the leading Chartists, Peter Bussey, decided to visit the North Riding and urge the people to support  Chartism.  This was a radical, grass-roots, nationwide, working class movement calling above all for Parliamentary reform in the conviction that only when ordinary men had the vote would their voice be heard.

The Chartist newspaper the Northern Star & Leeds General Advertiser of 30 March 1839 gave an account of Mr Bussey's arrival in Stokesley:

The inhabitants of this place, met Mr Bussey on entering the town with a procession and banner; the banner being a white ground – motto – "England expects every man to do his duty."  He was conducted to the Black Bull Inn, in the Market-place, from one of the front windows of which he addressed the people with considerable effect; after which resolutions were passed, adopting the petition and pledging themselves to support the Convention.

(White's Directory 1840 lists 17 inns and taverns in Stokesley; the Black Bull was run by John Smith.)

 

Peter Bussey went on to an open air meeting at Swainby:

Mr Bussey addressed a meeting of the inhabitants of Swainby, a considerable village, six miles from Stokesley, in the open air, at four o'clock in the afternoon, when the inhabitants poured in from the surrounding places, namely, Osmotherley, Carlton, Faceby, Hulton, Rudby [Hutton Rudby], Potter [Potto, spelled phonetically], and Trugleby [probably Ingleby]; the whole amounting to many hundreds; a beautiful green and white flag floated in the air; the whole presenting an appearance of beauty calculated to inspire the ardent lover of liberty with a fresh impulse to go forward in defence of the rights of the masses.  

Mr Douglas, an operative shoemaker, occupied the chair, who, after a few preliminary remarks, read the National Petition to the assembly, and then introduced Mr Bussey, who was received with loud and continued cheers.  He addressed them at great length in a powerful and effective speech, which seemed to be well understood and appreciated by the intelligent but simple peasantry, of whom his audience consisted.  He was vociferously cheered throughout.  The Charter and Petition were unanimously adopted, and a vote of confidence and determination to uphold the Convention was enthusiastically carried. 

Some months later, the Chartist James Maw came to Hutton Rudby.  Maw makes a fleeting appearance in my book as he had a walk-on part as a witness in the story of William Huntley (see Chapter 6)

He held a Chartist meeting on the Green.  According to R P Hastings' Chartism in the North Riding of Yorkshire and South Durham, 1838-1848, (2004), the Revd Robert Barlow and Henry Bainbridge tried to bribe some women to disrupt the gathering.  They failed, but achieved the dismissal of Richard Joysey, a Methodist class leader who had given Maw hospitality.

The story of Henry Bainbridge and how he lost his wife and two children in the cholera epidemic of 1832 and his power and influence in village matters can be found in Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 of my book.

The situation was still bad when in 1842 Mr Harrison Terry, who was Hutton's Poor Law Guardian, was killed in a fall from his horse.  A public meeting was held and it was resolved to ask the Poor Law Commission for permission to nominate a replacement for Mr Terry for the rest of the year, and not to wait for the next elections 

since under the present depression of trade and the number of applications it is impossible to do without one ... The Paupers of Hutton require more attention than any other township

[R P Hastings' Hutton Rudby: An Industrial Village, p11]

The village was in decline.  In the ten years between the censuses of 1841 and 1851, the population of the township of Hutton was reduced from 911 to 771.  The census enumerators ascribed the fall to "the stoppage of a flax mill and the decline of handloom weaving ... which have caused the hands to migrate in search of employment".

George Wilson had come to the village when the population was at its 19th century peak of 1,027 in 1831.

George's next venture would bring back employment to Hutton Rudby.

George Wilson & the 'Cleveland Sailcloth'

Perhaps it was the opening of the North Yorkshire & Cleveland Railway Company's line from Picton Junction to Stokesley in 1857 that gave George Wilson the impetus for his bold new enterprise.  Hutton Rudby was now connected to the outside world – and the Durham coalfields – by Potto Station and the railway system.

On 18 February 1860 a rather excitable and inaccurate report appeared in the Newcastle Guardian & Tyne Mercury

HUTTON RUDBY SPINNING MILL 

This neat establishment, once the property of Messrs Blackett and Mease, and which stood so long idle, seems, in the hands of Mr George Wilson, likely to enjoy a good share of prosperity.  Gas has been attached to the premises, and eight sail cloth steam power-looms have been put into operation, besides a number of hand-looms that are dependent upon the establishment for employment.  The mill has been regularly at work during the past year, and there is every prospect of its future being still more successful.  It has been a great blessing to many poor families in Hutton and has found employment for a large number of hands in the locality.

The mill had never belonged to Blacket & Mease, and there was no gas.  However, the rest was true – George Wilson had taken a tenancy of the disused flax-spinning mill and was weaving sailcloth.  He was setting up in competition with the likes of Messrs Yeoman and Messrs J Wilford & Sons of Northallerton.  In the 1861 census he identified himself for the first time as a "sailcloth manufacturer".

Sailcloth from Cleveland Sailcloth Works.  Courtesy of Allan and Joy Barthram

His speciality was his "Cleveland Sailcloth" and he sent samples of it to the Great International Exhibition of 1862, the world fair held from 1 May to 1 November in South Kensington, on the site now occupied by the Natural History Museum

Newcastle Journal, 11 April 1862 

Hutton Rudby will be represented at the Great International Exhibition by the Cleveland sail cloth, manufactured by Mr George Wilson, and now so very extensively used and appreciated for its strength and durability.  On the 26th ult., two cases were sent off, containing eight sample rolls of splendid canvass, which will be placed on view, in a neat mahogany case with plate-glass front, made expressly for their reception in class 19 of textile fabrics.  Numerous visitors, who saw the canvass before it was sent off, were unanimous in their praise of beauty and quality.

Even his Scottish rivals, reporting on the flax and jute manufactures, praised George Wilson's canvas:

Dundee Courier, 3 July 1862 

Yorkshire comes out particularly strong in Canvas, as well as in many other kinds of Linens and Linen Yarns, and we shall notice them first.

(The report lists Messrs Wm Booth & Co, Leeds; Messrs Carter Brothers, Barnsley; Mr C J Fox, Doncaster; Mr J Gill, Headingley; Messrs W B Holdsworth & Co, Leeds; Messrs Marshall & Co, Leeds; Messrs J Wilford & Sons, Northallerton)

Messrs J Wilford & Sons ... have a beautiful display of Linen Drills, adapted for Trouserings, Vestings, &c., Bleached, Dyed, and Printed.  The patterns are very pretty, the cloth of most superior quality of material, and well woven, and the goods finished in fine style.  The goods are worthy of high commendation, as they are both very sightly, and of real merit 

Mr G Wilson, Cleveland:  Exhibit "The Cleveland Sail Cloth."  It is from extra long flax, tied up with the yarn of which it is made to shew the quality, which is most superior.  The cloth is firm, well drawn up, really good, and deserving of high praise.

Cleveland Sailcloth stamp.  Courtesy of Marie Wray

Messrs Yeoman & Co, Northallerton:  Show a neat case of Yarns, Ducks, Drills, Huckabacks, &c.  The Yarn is level and well spun, and from fine material.  The Ducks are well made, superior cloth.  The Huckabacks are good, useful cloth, and the Drills are of various finish – brown, bleached, dyed, and printed.  They would make beautiful trouserings and vestings, and are of very nice shades of colour, and admirably finished.

The Yorkshire Drills are especially deserving of notice, being very handsome, strong goods, and most suiitable for the purposes intended.  They show very favourably with similar character of Irish goods.

(The other English exhibitors of Linens are: Mr T Ainsworth, Whitehaven; Mr A Cleugh, Bromley; Messrs Costerton & Napier, Scole, Norfolk; Messrs Faulding, Stratton & Brough, London; Mr Harford, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Mr W F Moore, Douglas IoM Mr John Morison, Norton Tolgate, London; Messrs Stephens, Hounsells & Co, Bridport; Messrs Wilson Brothers, Whitehaven, Messrs Wilks, Brothers & Seaton, London)

Hutton Rudby church and mill
The chimneys of Leven House can be seen at the right

It was a business which required skilled hands and advertisements for the Hutton Rudby Mill can be found in newspapers through Yorkshire and Cheshire and into Scotland, for example

Leeds Mercury, 22 December 1873
WANTED, WOMEN WINDERS for heavy flax yarns; piece work, good wages and constant employment.  Apply personally or by letter to George Wilson, Sailcloth Works, Hutton Rudby 

Dundee Advertiser, 28 January 1881
TENTER (Competent) Wanted for Sailcloth Looms.  None but Steady Men Accustomed to Sailcloth need apply.  Address Cleveland Sailcloth Works, Hutton Rudby, near Yarm, Yorkshire

A tenter was the mechanic responsible for running and maintaining the power-looms, as can be seen from this letter from a Power-Loom Tenter to the Glasgow Mechanics' Magazine 1832.

There are still stories in the village of men waiting at Potto station to see girls arriving from Scotland in response to the advertisements, hoping to spot a future bride, and several men did find wives among the Scottish girls.

Hutton Bleach Works

There was a Bleach Works associated with the Sailcloth Works, It lay on the Hutton side of the River Leven but the access road was from Rudby.  This O.S. map dated 1888-1913 shows its position clearly – it is marked as The Holmes, the bleachyard having closed by then.

Reproduced with permission of the National Library of Scotland from their website https://maps.nls.uk/index.html

I don't know if this had always been the site of the Hutton bleach grounds, but it seems very likely.  I was once told that there were the remains of machinery at the bottom of North End, where the linen manufacturer George Bewick once lived, that had been used for winching bales of cloth down to the bleach ground below.  It isn't clear whether the Bleach Works was exclusively used or operated by the Sailcloth Works nor whether it was owned by the Wilsons.  Very little is known of the Works, but there are several photographs showing the buildings with yarn hanging out on the long lines in the field in front.  According to Bulmer's Directory, twelve hands were employed at the Works in 1890.

The Bleach Works, Hutton Rudby

Men at work at the Bleach Works, Hutton Rudby

The Wilsons & the village

Meanwhile, George and his wife Ann Hutton raised a family at Hutton House, on the Green.  In 1856 their youngest child was born.  They now had four sons and a daughter: James, Allan, Thomas, John and Annie.

George was – naturally, given his position – involved in village life from the beginning.  He was a churchwarden in 1838 and it's clear he took very wisely charge of the Revd R J Barlow's accounts – for the church and the Bathurst Charity – Mr Barlow was rather slapdash about money and paperwork.  Secondary in importance to the Falkland and Ropner families of Skutterskelfe Hall, the Wilson men were significant as employers and charitable donors and their involvement can always be seen in the celebrations of royal occasions.  When the Prince of Wales married Alexandra of Denmark on 10 March 1863, the mill was very much part of the village celebrations (for a full account see here) 

A correspondent says that on the wedding day the British and Danish flags were seen waving in the air from the summits of the Cleveland Sailcloth Manufactory, and in various prominent places of the village.  The Hutton brass band sent forth its animating and melodious strains, and Mr George Wilson provided a liberal banquet for all his workmen and their wives, in which the band joined them, and all enjoyed themselves most heartily.  

Of course there were plenty of grumbles about them – and there was plenty of time for this as the Wilsons lived in the village until after the Second World War.  It has still not been forgotten that the houses at the east end of South Side and the houses of Barkers Row have little or nothing by way of garden because the land was absorbed into the own gardens and orchards of Hutton House.  For many years the cottages of Barkers Row only had windows opening onto the Green, as Mr Bowes Wilson objected to the occupants looking into his gardens.  When Mr Robson of Robsons, Painters & Decorators had an advertisement painted onto a nearby gable end on South Side – one that happened to face directly towards Hutton House – Mr Bowes Wilson objected and it was painted over.  The black paint has been washing off the brickwork for many years now.  The well which was once reached by the footpath called the Wellstand seems to have disappeared when the gardens of Hutton House were enlarged.

Three of George and Ann Wilson's children made their homes in the village.  George took Allan and Thomas into the business with him while Annie stayed at home, unmarried.  (I was told that a descendant once said that "she wasn't allowed" to marry.)  James and John both went to Oxford, James to Wadham College and John to Worcester.  James was a clergyman, becoming Rector of Crathorne in 1878; John George was a solicitor in Durham and an eminent figure in the civic life of the county.

In the summer of 1876 their father died

York Herald, 10 July 1876
Wilson. - On the 8th inst., at Hutton Rudby, Mr George Wilson, aged 66 years

and less than a fortnight later, John Mease died at Leven House.  It must have seemed like the end of an era.

Allan Bowes Wilson was then 37 years old and his brother Thomas Bowes Wilson was 31 and newly married:

York Herald, 15 June 1876
Wilson - Hutton.  On the 13th inst., at St Andrew's church, Newcastle, by the Rev Marsden Gibson, M.A., Master of the Hospital of Mary Magdalene, Thomas Bowes, third son of George Wilson, of Hutton Rudby, Yorkshire, to Maria, only daughter of John Hutton, of Claremont-place, Newcastle-on-Tyne

The brothers continued to run the mill.  The following year, because of a Chancery case in the estate of John Mease, his property in Hutton Rudby was offered for auction and the Mill was included:

A Building called the “CLEVELAND SAIL CLOTH FACTORY,”
WORKED BY STEAM POWER,
In the occupation of the Executors of the late GEORGE WILSON. 

A WATER CORN-MILL,
With Iron Water-wheel, Three Pairs of Millstones, Hoist, Corn-screen, Flour Dressing Machine,
Large Granary, Cart-house, Stable, Outbuildings, Dwelling-house, and Office and Yard,
In the occupation of WILLIAM KETTON and the Executors of the late GEORGE WILSON.

I don't know what happened at the sale and whether the Wilson brothers decided to buy the freehold of their premises; I believe the Mease trustees still owned land in Hutton Rudby in 1928.

A notice in the York Herald of 28 October 1878 shows that their mother Anne died on 25 October, a couple of years after her husband.  Allan and Annie continued to live at Hutton House for the rest of their lives.  

Allan Bowes Wilson in Hutton House

There is a photograph of Allan at ease with a book with the light pouring in through the window.  He and his brother John were keen collectors of the paintings of Ralph Hedley 

Meanwhile, Thomas built Enterpen Hall for his family (see Stately Homes of Hutton Rudby)

But by 1890, the sailcloth business was beginning to slacken and neighbouring sailcloth factories closed:

Newcastle Chronicle, 17 May 1890 

Dead Industries at Stockton. - Harker's sail cloth factory, near the railway station at Stockton, which was established many years ago, and where a lucrative business was carried on for a long time, was recently closed, and the buildings are now being pulled down.  On the site of the factory, and on the bleaching field behind, a large number of superior artisan dwellings are to be erected.  Building operations have been commenced, and already a number of houses are in course of erection.

The Wilson mill continued – and was fêted in the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough in 1895 for having "the prettiest warehouse in England".

R P Hastings recounts (Industrial Village, p17) from local knowledge, that the mill remained viable by supplying markets in the Baltic, including the Russian Navy, and that one of its most valuable assets was a British Admiralty contract for its well-known blue-line sail cloth.  Working hours were from 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening in the summer months and from 6 in the morning until the light failed in the winter.  It was an intensely hot and noisy place and often at the end of a shift the workers would emerge covered with white lint.  

In 1900 the Wilsons installed electric lighting powered by a generator.  It was to commemorate the Relief of Mafeking – Thomas's son John Hutton Wilson was a professional soldier who served in the Boer War, where his life was saved by a sergeant later awarded the Victoria Cross.

John Hutton Wilson returns from the Boer War

This rather dark photograph shows mill workers pulling his open carriage through the village upon his return from South Africa.  (He died in the First World War, as did his solicitor brother George.  They are commemorated by brass plaques in the church)

The lighting was a "gift" to their workers because it gave them extra earning hours through the winter, but of course it was a very useful gift to the Wilsons themselves.

Hutton Rudby Sailcloth Mill seen from upstream of the bridge
Courtesy of Joyce Walker

The closure of the Mill

However, by 1908 the mill was no longer viable and it had to close.  Hastings records that a handful of families migrated to find work in Dundee and the mill machinery was sold to a firm in Leven in Fife.  The mill buildings once again were used only for meetings, until finally they were demolished in 1937 when the road was widened so that the dangerous approach to the bridge was made safer.  

Thomas's wife Maria had died on 16 April 1904 at Newcastle aged 55 (according to the National Probate Calendar); after the mill closed he left Hutton Rudby to join his daughter in Scotland.  The old mill was used as the venue of the auction of the furniture, glass, pictures and ornaments that had once graced Enterpen Hall:

Whitby Gazette, 9 July 1909

HUTTON RUDBY

One Mile from Potto Station, N.E.R.

Highly Important Unreserved Sale of Valuable Chippendale, Oak and Cabinet Furniture; Carpets, Oil-paintings, Engravings, Water-colours, Antique China and Glass, Books, etc.
MESSRS HODGSON & FARROW, honoured with instructions from T BOWES-WILSON, Esquire (who has left the district), will SELL BY AUCTION, in the old SAIL-CLOTH FACTORY, on THURSDAY & FRIDAY, July 22nd and 23rd, 1909, the FURNISHINGS & APPOINTMENTS of dining, drawing, and morning rooms, library, bedrooms, entrance hall, kitchens, and outside effects, removed from Enterpen Hall.
On View on Wednesday, July 21st, by Catalogue only, price threepence each.
Auctioneers' Offices:
Market Place, Stokesley.
Established 57 Years

Thomas died on 29 June 1929 at St Andrews.  Allan died three years later.  His death notice appeared in the newspapers after his quiet burial:

Leeds Mercury, 8 July 1932
Wilson - July 4, at Hutton House, Hutton Rudby, passed peacefully away, aged 93, Allan Bowes Wilson.  His wish was for a quiet village funeral – no mourning or flowers.  He was buried in Rudby-in-Cleveland Churchyard July 6, 1932

Allan had been a generous benefactor of the church and his last gift was the lychgate.  It was dedicated by the Rev A L Leeper in May 1933.

Lychgate at All Saints', Hutton Rudby soon after it was built by Jim Barthram. 
Courtesy of Allan & Joy Barthram

The mill buildings were demolished in 1937 so the narrow road up Hutton Bank with its dangerously tight corner could be widened and straightened.

Cottages on Hutton Bank

The photograph above shows the blind corner on Hutton Bank before the Mill and the cottages were demolished.  Leven House is to the right of the picture.

Demolition of the Mill
from the Stockton & Teesside Weekly Herald, 22 Jan 1937

The last part of the Mill to be demolished was the chimney.  The schoolchildren were taken down the bank to watch it fall.  Go to the Hutton Rudby & District Local History Society's Facebook page to see Maurice Atkinson's sketch capturing the moment when it fell.  The base had been weakened by removing courses of brickwork and a rope attached partway up the chimney. The rope was tied to a steel stake, anchored in the hillside, and four men swung on the rope until the chimney started to rock, eventually falling to much cheering from the children.

Many thanks to Malcolm McPhie and the Hutton Rudby & District Local History Society's Facebook page for the photographs

Next post: Hutton Rudby 1876 to 1877: the Albion Sailcloth Mill