South Craven mill was vital thread in knitting wool trade

ELIZABETH Ann Fryer was born in Glusburn in 1858.

She began her working life as a worsted spinner, most probably in the village at Hayfield Mill. However, in the 1890s she bought herself a stocking knitting machine and for over 30 years worked from home, until her death in 1933.

The stocking knitting machine had been developed by William Harrison, the son of a butcher from Downham, near Clitheroe. After patenting his first machine in 1856 he set up a business manufacturing them in Manchester. By the 1880s machines designed for home use became readily available and many housewives and young women began stocking knitting on their own account.

Prior to the development of the machine, stockings and socks were knitted by hand using four needles – a lengthy and tedious process. The new machine, with a competent operator, could produce a finished pair of socks in 23 minutes and a pair of stockings in 35 minutes.

Hayfield Mill specialised in hosiery yarns and therefore she had a handy local source of wool.

The mill was built in 1851 by James Hartley, from nearby Sutton-in-Craven. He was a younger son of Peter Hartley who had established the family as worsted spinners at Greenroyd Mill. However, James branched out on his own, first at Low Fold in the village where he began spinning worsted hosiery yarn. As he had no source of mechanical power, he must have been spinning the yarn on small hand-operated machines called jennies. Many years later a retired employee recalled that he had transported a machine from Sutton to the new mill at Glusburn by handcart.

Once established at Hayfield, he installed a steam engine and new mechanically-driven spinning frames and associated machinery. He also took on John Cousin Horsfall, a young man from Wadsworth near Hebden Bridge. By 1870 he had been appointed mill manager and later that year married James Hartley’s daughter, Elizabeth, and was made a partner.

After James Hartley retired to Ilkley, Horsfall took control of the mill and under his direction the business expanded; the old mill was extended, and together with later extensions it would eventually occupy nearly 10 acres.

By the end of the 19th century merino wool, imported from Australia, was being sorted, combed, spun into knitting wool and dispatched to customers throughout Great Britain and Ireland.

After John Cousin Horsfall died in 1921 the mill passed to John Donald Horsfall, who expanded the business further and in 1929 installed a new and more powerful steam engine. It was a 1500hp cross compound engine built by Newton, Bean & Mitchell of Bradford. The engine powered machinery throughout the mill via 22 cables, or ropes, from two flywheels, one 16 feet and the other 14 feet in diameter.

In 1951 Hayfield Mill celebrated its centenary and some 450 employees were treated to a trip to Blackpool. The party travelled in coaches, and lunch and tea was provided in the Spanish Hall at the Winter Gardens.

However from the 1950s there were increased difficulties filling vacancies and girls, many from Ireland and later from Malta, were brought over to fill the positions. Accommodation was provided in the mill's new hostel, Sunnybank House.

During the 1960s the old machinery, some dating back to the 1900s, was stripped out and replaced to modernise production. By this time Hayfield Knitting Wools was one of the best-known brands, with its own knitting patterns. The business also employed home knitters until the 1990s, a practice started a century earlier by Elizabeth Ann Fryer.

In 1972 Hayfield merged with Sirdar Spinning Ltd, Wakefield, and the mill was closed in 1995. However, Hayfield as a brand is still a popular knitting wool today.