Grist for the mill

Growing up in the heart of wool manufacturing country inspired to devise four layouts that weave in and around the gritty industrial landscape of Yorkshire’s West Riding region.

Paul A. Lunn devises four layouts that weave in and around the industrial landscape of Yorkshire’s West Riding.

Imet my love by the gasworks croft. Dreamed a dream by the old canal. Kissed my girl by the factory wall. Dirty old town, dirty old town… Folk singer Ewan Maccoll wrote Dirty Old Town about his hometown of Salford in 1949, but the industrial landscape he describes could be equally applicable to the towns of Yorkshire’s West Riding. This was wool manufacturing country. Huddersfield was pre-eminent for fine worsteds and dye products, Halifax for worsted yarn and carpets, while the twin towns of Dewsbury and Batley, together with Spen Valley, constituted the Heavy Woollen District, so dubbed because of its heavyweight cloth. These towns and villages formed a backdrop for many a northern lad, me included. I was born in Dewsbury, educated between Tingley and Morley, schooled in art at Batley, followed by technical illustration at Heckmondwyke. I lived close to Amblers Mill, East Ardsley. I was too young to recall rail activity to and from the mills, but these huge edifices have dominated my view of the area, both as a backdrop to life and to many a layout design.

MUCK AND BRASS

I’ve selected four mill towns for this study. Much has changed from the grit and grime-covered environment of Ewan Maccoll’s era, of smoke and fog-filled days and unsocial hours. Today’s working mills are few and far between, but there are still wool and fabric manufacturers in the area. The majority of surviving mills have been redeveloped as housing or retail units, so it’s still possible to get some idea - although sanitized - of the industry’s appearance and operation. The Heavy Woollen District give a taste of an industry that was spread across the whole country and helped drive the Industrial Revolution. Parts of industrialised Lancashire, for example, such as Rochdale, Blackburn, Oldham, Wigan and Accrington would offer an ideal alternative location for a layout. There’s much to recommend a milltown layout, because the result can be incredibly atmospheric: rows of terraced houses in the shadow of imposing cotton mills and chimneys, painted using a drab colour palette. There’s the sound from passing steam trains, mill klaxons or hooters, and the low-level drone from looms. A Br-era depiction could also include trams and trolley buses, alongside the myriad railways in the area that were still in use.