Marshall's Mill, Leeds
1791-92 John Marshall built a six-storey water-powered mill using water drawn from the nearby Hol Beck to spin yarn. Marshall was able to create enough power to run 7,000 spindles employing 2,000 factory workers. Only a generation earlier, the making of hand-spun yarn had been a traditional Yorkshire cottage industry.
Marshall's Mill was part of a complex begun in 1791-92 by English industrial pioneer John Marshall. It was a six storey mill, drawing water from the nearby Hol Beck, with machines supplanting Yorkshire's previous cottage industry of hand driven spindles.
Later, together with the adjacent Egyptian-style Temple Mill, Leeds, the complex employed over 2,000 factory workers. When it was completed it was considered to be one of the largest factories in the world, with 7,000 steam-powered spindles.
See here [1] for an interesting account of the development of the development of the Holbeck site, including some results of archaeological investigations. Maps show how the site expanded southwards, starting with 'Mill A' and a warehouse in 1791, Mill B in 1795-6, and Hackling Shops in 1796, all served by the Hol Beck. South of Hol Beck and the adjacent Water Lane, another warehouse was built on Marshall Street in 1808, followed by a stove and the Mechanics' Shop and Mill C in 1817, Mill D in 1826, Mill E in 1830, another warehouse in 1838, and reservoirs to the west of these buildings. On the opposite side of Marshall Street was the large engineering works of Fenton, Murray and Wood. The final development of Marshall's Mills was the Egyptian-themed Temple Mill (1841-3).
See also Marshall and Co
Cruelty
1841 'THE FACTORY SYSTEM.
Dr. Holland, of Sheffield, has published a series of letters, addressed to J. G. Marshall, Esq., of Leeds, in which he has most ably exposed the avaricious conduct of the manufacturers, their reckless regard of the welfare those in their employ. We give the following extract from Dr. Holland's fifth letter:-
" How dare you to rail at the aristocracy ! when the petty power you have exercised presents one of the darkest pictures that the pen ever described, or the mind in its wild imaginings ever conceived ! There are actions that will not pass to posterity, that will not live in after times, and yours are this kind, simply because humanity will not believe what human nature once habitually performed.
Posterity has a less claim upon our sympathies than the present, and though your actions may not live in after times, they shall excite the indignation of the passing generation, and occupy much of their thoughts. You and despotism shall be so linked that the one shall naturally suggest the other.
"Here follows the evidence of one of your own overlookers, taken on the factory commission :-
' There has been a good deal of beating at Marshall's. They were beat with a strap. We had them of all ages in one room, as low as eight and up to twenty and more. It was I that had the strapping of them mostly. I did not strap them so bad as others. I think that those who strapped the most were the best liked. I mean they were likely to get more work done that way. They did nothing them but strap and fine them. There has been many a one badly beat with strapping in my room. I have seen them flogged while they had marks upon them, girls and boys both. I have seen them strike at young women. There was no rule as to the, age of strapping. They would strap a girl of fifteen or sixteen as a matter of course. I have seen some badly hurt there. The parents have come many a time to the overlooker and master too. The girls often take their breakfast home at noon, because they have no time to get it. At Mr. Marshall's they have stopped quarter of hour at breakfast and drinking since this matter has been talked of.'
Another witness says —' My father is dead. He was guard of a coach. My mother came to Leeds when I was nine years old, to seek work for us. I got work at Mr. Marshall's flax mill, in Water-lane. I have cried many an hour in the factory ; could scarcely get home. I was exceedingly fatigued at night. Sometimes I had to be 'trailed' home. I have an iron on my right leg—my knee is contracted. It was a great misery to me to work. I was straight before. My sister has carried me to bed many a time.'
A third witness says—' I live at No. 26, Duke-street, Leeds. I am thirteen years old. I began to work at Mr. Marshall's flax mill when I was near eight years old. We worked from six in the morning to seven at night. We had forty minutes allowed for dinner. We had no allowance for breakfast or afternoon drinking. I was very much tired and fatigued. As soon as I went home and sat by the fire, I fell asleep directly. We were not allowed to sit down at Mr. Marshall's mill during the whole day ! If we did we should be beaten ! It is a common thing for the children to be beaten. I had a sister who was at Mr. Marshall's, and she got killed there. The overlooker behaved very bad to the children. When my sister was working there he beat her, and the rest of the children also.
Another witness says—' l am about fifty-six years old. I have been engaged as overlooker in the flax mill of Mr. Marshall. The regular hours work are from six to seven. When they are “throng," from five to nine at night! They only allow forty minutes for dinner ! No time is allowed for breakfast or ‘drinking'! The children put the food on one side and eat it as they can. Sometimes, when their work is bad, they are prevented from getting it at all; they have then to take it home again. Sometimes it is so dirtied that it is rendered unfit to eat. The dust flies about till they can scarcely see each other! In the card-rooms the refuse hangs about their mouths while they are eating their food! Sometimes, in those dusty places, it takes away their appetites, and they cannot eat. They beat the boys and girls with a strap to make them look sharp. When they are fatigued and tired, they are obliged to use them worse, to make them keep up ! The masters know very well that the children are thus beaten and strapped ; they encourage the overlookers to do it ! The straps are about foot and a half long, and there is a stick at the end of some of them, and the end of the strap which they beat them with is cut or slit into five or six thongs. They are regularly made for the purpose ! Unless they are driven and flogged up, they cannot get the quantity of work they want from them.'
Again, another witness says, ' I am twenty-nine years of age. I am a native of Shrewsbury. I was about ten years old, when I began to work at Mr Marshall's mill, at Shrewsbury. When we were brisk, we used generally to begin at fve in the morning, and run till eight at night ! The engine never stopped, except forty minutes at dinner-time. Those long hours were very fatiguing. The children were kept awake by a blow or a box ! Very considerable severity was used in that mill. I was strapped most severely, till I could not bear sit upon a chair without having pillows ; and I was forced to lie upon my face in bed at one time, and through that I left. I was strapped on my legs, and then I was put upon a man s back and strapped and then I was strapped and buckled with two straps to an iron pillar and flogged !! After that, the overseer took a piece of tow, and twisted it in the shape of a cord, and put it in my mouth, and tied behind my head ! He thus gagged me, and then ordered me to run round a part of the machinery, and he stood at one end, and every time I came round he struck me with a stick, which I believe was an ash plant, and which he generally carried his hand, till one of the men in the room came and begged me off ! ! ! At one time I was beaten so, that had not the power to cry ! !'
Another victim of the system says, ' I went to work at Mr. Marshall's-mill when I was seven years old. Very severe methods were adopted, in order to compel us to work their long hours. I have seen boys knocked down with a strap ; they have been called from their work, flogged, and then knocked down on the floor ; and when they have been the floor, they have been beaten till they have risen, and when they have risen, they have been flogged to their work again ! That was very common. I know many who have been bound to pillars, and then flogged ; it is quite common to do so. Females were also chastised ! No means were taken remove the overlooker who inflicted such extreme chastisement. I have known a mother of two children in Mr. Marshall's employment at Shrewsbury knocked down by the overlooker. It is the usual practice to prepare mills previous to their being inspected by strangers. It is a frequent thing at Mr. Marshall's mill, where the least children are employed, (there are plenty working six years of age !) provided a child should be drowsy, the overlooker walks round the room with a stick in his hand, and he touches that child on the shoulder, and says ' Come here.' In the comer of the room there an iron cistern ; it is filled with water ; he takes the boy the legs, and dips him overhead in the cistern, and sends him his work for the remainder of the day, and that boy is to stand, dripping as he is, at his work ! He has no chance of drying himself! We have a vast number of cripples. Some are crippled from losing their limbs, many from standing too long. It first begins with a pain in the ankle ; after that they will ask the overlooker to let them sit down, but they will not permit them.’
"Disgusting details ! and yet these are only a small portion of what might be brought forward. Is there anyone, with the slightest touch of kindly feeling, that does not revolt at the picture! Is there a parent whose blood boils not with indignation, while he contemplates it ? And yet he who knew of these cruelties, who superintended their enforcement, and who observed the melancholy results, disease, decrepitude, and premature death, relented not in his thirst for wealth. The tyrant in the slaughter of the battle-field is a noble being in comparison."
Note: Dr. Holland was George Calvert Holland. In 1841 he wrote a lengthy criticism of the class of cruel and greedy mill owners which he called 'millocrats'. Each of the seven chapters was specially addressed to J. G. Marshall, although Marshall was not the only named mill owner to be censured by Holland[2]. He highlighted Messrs Strutt of Derby and Belper as noble exceptions to the typical members of the millocracy.
1842 'THE SLAVERY OF THE COTTON MILLS
The following extract is from the evidence of Jonathan Dane, taken before the Factory Commission.
"I reside in Leeds; I am 25 years old. I first went to work at Mr. Marshall's mill when I was seven years old. Very severe methods were adopted in order to compel us to work their long hours. I have seen boys knocked down with a strap ; they have been called from their work, flogged, and then knocked down on the floor; and when they have been on the floor, they have been beaten until they have risen, and when they have risen they have been flogged to their work again. That was very common. I have known many who have been bound to pillars, and then flogged ; it is quite common to do so. Females were also chastised ! No means were taken to remove the overlooker who inflicted such extreme chastisement. If we had complained to Mr. Marshall, we should have been discharged; and whatever hand was turned away from Mr. Marshall, Mr. Benyon would not employ ; and whatever hand was turned away from Mr. Benyon's, Mr. Marshall would not employ ; and there were only two mills in Shrewsbury. Mr. Marshall has a mill in Shrewsbury, and another also in Leeds. I have known a mother of two children in Mr. Marshall's employ at Shrewsbury, knocked down by the overlookers. It is the usual practice to prepare mills previous to their being inspected by strangers.' [Here followed some of the testament quoted above]. [3]
Note: Much of the above information comes from evidence given to the House of Commons Select Committee in 1833, appointed to investigate Factory Children's Labour, over which Michael Thomas Sadler presided.
1841 'CHEAP BREAD
To the Workpeople of England
..... Mr. Marshall's mill alone shows the following horrible results, as proved by his own evidence :
Number of hands employed in one of his mills.... 1229
Number under 21 years of age of the above .... 1025
Leaving only ....204
above the age of 21, and of which small number of 204, the greater number are under 30! The average wages paid to the above 1025 workpeople is just 5s. 6d. per week !! Think of this too. Mr. Holland adds with commendable indignity, "you are either killing or throwing upon society, as useless, from having reached 21 years of age, at least 100 persons annually.' So much then for these kind-hearted millocrats, who want cheap bread for us, just as they want cheap oil for their machinery ; but let us not be quelled by the tyrants who themselves reside in palaces, and wallow in wealth and luxury, while they degrade us beneath the level of their beasts. They think that we have no sense to see, that, so long as they can get their work done by children, and STEAM MACHINERY, there will be no use in our appealing to them for work, unless we do it for childrens' pay. Now let us see the effects of this sytern (of turning men out of employ to make room for the " free labour" of children) on the state of crime in this country. .... I am, &c., A Fellow-operative'[4]