A shoddy way to prosper?

Exploring the ups and downs of the textile industry in Morley

By Morley Community Archive

Crank Mill

Morley Community Archives

Finishing department at Bradley's Mill

Morley Community Archives

Morley is a West Yorkshire town, between Leeds and Bradford, and is said to be built on seven hills.  Its prosperity was based in the textile industry, having been a pioneer in the centralisation of cloth manufacture in factories or mills at the start of the Industrial Revolution

This photograph shows Crank Mill, the first steam-powered woollen mill in the country, which was opened in 1790. The picture was taken in the 1960s, when it was almost at the end of its days as a mill, and it is now a listed building.

The history of Morley's mills is explored in this article from the Morley Community Archive, and the linked factsheets provide detailed facts, figures and maps - even a poem giving an impression of what it was like to work in the mills!