Rookery Mills, Wakefield Road, Moldgreen

GEOGRAPHIC STUB

This page is a bare-bones entry for a location which appears on an historic Ordnance Survey map. More detailed information may eventually be added...

Details

• location: Wakefield Road, Moldgreen
• status: no longer exists
• category: mill
• notes: woollen & cotton mills, later partly site of Cross Chemical Works (1890 map)

Built circa 1843, the original mill was destroyed by an "extensive fire" in September 1868 whilst in the occupation of Messrs. Tolson, Haigh and Brook. The Huddersfield Chronicle (19/Sep/1868) described the mill as 200 feet by 40 feet and five storeys high, and "separated from the Bankfield Mills (belonging to Messrs. John Day and sons, spinners and manufacturers) by three cottages, two of which are used as a beerhouse" — one of these most likely being the Dog Inn Beer House. The damages were estimated at £17,000 and the Chronicle noted that "thousands of persons congregated to witness the spectacle [of the fire], and conducted themselves, as a rule, very satisfactorily."

A new mill was erected in 1870, however this was also completely destroyed by a fire on the afternoon of 25 May 1894 which started on the fourth floor. Around 200 workers escaped, with around a dozen forced to climb through the windows and down ropes. The fire reportedly caused £40,000 of damage.