Benyon, Benyon and Bage
of Ditherington Flax Mill, Shrewsbury and of Leeds
The mill was built for John Marshall of Leeds, Thomas Benyon, and Benjamin Benyon. The architect, Charles Bage, was also a partner in the venture
1803/4 Drawing of a Boulton and Watt engine for the mill [1]
1804 This partnership was dissolved with the mill being retained by John Marshall, who paid off his partners on the basis that it was worth £64,000. The other partners built themselves another mill nearby. These two flax mills provided the 'chief manufacture' of Shrewsbury (according to an 1851 directory).
1805 Partnership changed. '...the Copartnership in the Business of Flax-Spinners and Linen Manufacturers, carried on at Leeds, in the County of York, by John Marshall, Thomas Benyon, and Benjamin Benyon, under the Firm of Marshall and Benyons, and at Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, by the said John, Marshall, Thomas Benyon and Benjamin Benyon, and Charles Bage, under the Firm of Benyons, Marshall, and Bage, was dissolved...'[2]
1815 Partnership change. '...the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned, Thomas Benyon, Benjamin Benyon, and Charles Bage, under the firm of Benyon, Benyon, and Bage, as Linen-Manufacturers, in Leeds, in the County of York, and Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, is this day dissolved, so far as concerns the said Charles Bage...'[3]
1830 Partnership change. '...the Partnership heretofore carried on between us as Flax-Spinners and Linen-Manfacturers, at Leeds, in the County of York, and at Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, under the firm of Benjamin and Thomas Benyon, or of Benyon and Co. will be dissolved on the 4th day of October instant; and the said business will in future be carried on at Leeds and Shrewbury by the undersigned Thomas Benyon and Thomas Benyon the younger...Ben. Benyon. Thos. Benyon. Thos. Benyon, jun.'[4]
1886 The mill closed and was sold (with a bleach yard at Hanwood for £3,000. The building was then converted to a maltings (hence its more commonly-used local name), and as a consequence many windows were bricked up