near Tideswell, Derbyshire
Former cotton spinning mill, opened 1782. Notorious for the abusive treatment of child pauper apprentices.
1786 Advert: 'COTTON MILL. To be SOLD by AUCTION, ..... THE Leasehold Interest in LITTON MILL, and Three HOUSES adjoining ; together with the Engines, Machinery, Wheels, Geers and Utensild thereunto belonging. The Machinery is on the best Construction, comprising above 900 Spindles, with Carding Machines, &c. and has been worked for several Years. The Buildings and Machinery are in good Repair. Litton Mill is one Mile and a Half from Tideswell in Derbyshire, situated on the River Wye, and well supplied with Hands from the neighbouring Villages at low Wages. The Mill and Buildings are held under a Lease for Twenty One Years, Seventeen of which are unexpired, subject to a yearly Rent of Thirty Pounds Thirteen Shillings. For further Particulars enquire of Mr. NEEDHAM, on the Premises or of Mr. DUCKWORTH, Attorney at Law, Manchester.'[1].
1799 'The Partnership lately subsisting between Ellis Needham and Thomas Frith, at Litton Mill, in the County of Derby, was, the 25th Day March last dissolved by mutual content. All Debts due to, and owing from, the said Partnership, will be received and paid the said Ellis Needham'.[2]
1819 Advert: 'To be SOLD by AUCTION.
On Friday the 17th day of September next, on the premises, at Litton Mills, near Tideswell, Derbyshire;
ALL the valuable MACHINERY, consisting of 21 drums of water frame spinning, 3 stretchers, 84 spindles each, an excellent fly frame, of the newest construction, ..... likewise several ranges of new beaten and cast iron shafts, with new drums, and a quantity of other shafts, pedestals and mill gearing; a very large water wheel, made by Mr. Hughes, [probably Thomas Hewes ] .... In the apprentice house, situate near the mill, 38 pair of bedstocks and bedding, used for the apprentices, with a good patent mangle, washing machine, and other furniture, in the said apprentice house. The situation is peculiarly adapted for a person wishing embark in the spinning concern ; possessing a fall water equal to a 60-horse power, and the mill may be taken on lease on eligible terms. Also about 200 bags of waste of different descriptions.— Further particulars may be known on the premises; or byapplication to Mr. William Gibson, No. 11, Marsden square.'[3]
1874 'LITTON COTTON MILL DESTROYED BY FIRE.
A few days ago the hands employed in the Litton Mills, near Tidewell, belonging to Messrs. S. Moore and Sons, of Bamford, went to work as usual. Soon after their arrival a fire broke out in the mule-room, on the fourth floor in the centre block. The mill being an old one, and the floors thoroughly saturated with oil, it was soon one mass of flame, and, in spite of every effort to check it, the roof gave way, and story after story followed in quick succession, until the greater part of the mill was thoroughly gutted. The Buxton fire brigade was promptly in attendance, arriving in about 25 minutes. The engine began to play upon the burning mass, and was the means of saving the store-room. The fire is supposed to have been caused by a self-actor mule-head stock, which being probably overheated struck fire, and the sparks falling upon some inflammable material, spread with frightful rapidity. The property burned is, we understand, fully insured in the Lancashire Insurance Office and the Phoenix and Eoyal Exchange Offices. The machinery is a total wreck, lying mingled in every conceivable position. About three hundred hands were employed at the mill, which was engaged in the spring [spinning] and doubling trade. The fire has cast a gloom over the whole neighbourhood, as a large number of persons will be thrown out of employment. The damage is estimated at £20,000, which is covered by insurance.'[4]
From the Derby Daily Telegraph, 22 October 1925:-
'There has come to us for review a little book entitled "Money Talks," published at half a crown by Simpkin, Marshall and Co., in London, and J. and H. Bell, Nottingham. We were interested the book by reason of the fact that it was the work of Mr. Wm. Parlby Bland, a gentleman connected with a firm of Nottingham stockbrokers, and a son of Mr. W. R. Bland, who for something like forty years was connected with Smith's Bank in Derby. ….. He tells us that he has been prompted to write this little book "in the hope that the advantages of the modern capitalist system may be more widely recognised and appreciated,..... ....he deals with the origins of the system and its misuse. On this latter point he makes statements that are seldom found in a book of this character. "The misuse of capital gave birth and fostered the infancy of trades unionism, and notwithstanding its Damocletian tendency trades unionism is fundamentally the workers' fight for existence.".......
'..... We mentioned above that we were reserving an odious example of the capitalist system in Derbyshire a hundred years ago. Mr. Bland is apparently indebted for it to Mr. J. B. Firth’s "Highways and Byways in Nottinghamshire," in which lengthy reference is made to child life in factories at Lowdham— between Nottingham and Newark —in the bad old days. Children of seven years were sent from London workhouses to this factory, and the conditions were appalling. But Mr. Frith [Firth] relates that the Lowdham children - humanely treated, compared with what befell them at Litton Mill, near Tideswell, whither the majority of the eighty children were transferred when the Lowdham Mill was closed, as it was before their long apprenticeship was concluded. Mr. Bland reproduces the story as follows:— " This mill, which is still standing, belonged to certain Ellice [Ellis] Needham, whose name deserves perpetual execration. There were 160 boys in his employ. Their food was horrible. The pigs fared better than they, and indeed the boys stole the pigs' dinners so regularly that the animals set up loud protests at their approach. The children were so ravenous that they used to eat the tablespoonfuls of meal which were served out once a week instead of soap. Putrid fevers were rife, and as many as forty boys were frequently down with some epidemic together. Pitch and tobacco were then burnt in their dormitories, and vinegar was sprinkled on their beds."
" But," it is further related, " no lamps or candles were allowed at night, and the doctor was rarely called in till the sufferers were in their death agonies. When, driven to the last moment, they dropped at their looms or their frames, they were thrown into a wheelbarrow and wheeled to the apprentice house. The brutalities were appalling. One of the overlookers used to file the boys teeth 'so that they might eat their Sunday dinner the better.' Blincoe speaks of children's heads being so beaten that they became as soft as a boiled turnip. Other details are given, too horrible for words, and the reader sickens as he reads. Needham was a magistrate and a rich man, and his colleagues on the bench were deaf to all complaints. The scandal was notorious, but nothing was done. So many pauper children were buried in the nearest and cheapest churchyard that Needham at last was driven to distribute the bodies of his victims among more distant burial grounds, in spite of the heavier fees. How could these things be tolerated is one of the standing paradoxes of modern times that while public opinion in England was being stirred to its depths by tales of the sufferings of African slaves in far distant lands, while the whole of the Evangelical movement was unsleeping in its efforts to secure the abolition of the slave traffic, these cruel, hideous martyrdoms were being endured by little children in England, and cotton-masters were piling up huge fortunes and founding families on such an accursed system as this. Industrialism was a very Moloch, and the Poor Law authorities—they were not called Guardians till later—offered their 'infant paupers ' in great batches to the fiery torture. This is the first occasion on which we have encountered language of this kind in book of this character.'