The next posts will tell the story of five mills: the two flax-spinning mills of Stokesley, and the flax-spinning mill and two sailcloth mills in Hutton Rudby.
It's also the story of three families – Mease, Blacket and Wilson – and an unusual self-made man, William Surtees.
I have been able to find a great deal of new information, some of which overturns previous assumptions and all of which, I hope, adds greatly to our picture of the people and events concerned. This is above all thanks to being able to search the online London Gazette and increasing numbers of digitised newspapers.
I have tried to incorporate sources and references as much as possible into the text, hoping to tell the story in a readable fashion.
One source I have not used is Michael Heavisides' Rambles in Cleveland (1909). His information derives from a letter he received from Joseph Mellanby Mease. Joseph was only ten when his father Thomas was made bankrupt and his information seems to me to derive from family anecdotes alone. Some of it is demonstrably inaccurate and the rest I cannot corroborate, so I have decided to ignore the whole.
The series begins with Stokesley 1823-1834: the flax-spinning mill behind the High Street
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