Death of Robert Wadsworth from Heptonstall

[Duck]

Please could someone confirm the name of this mill, where Robert Wadsworth lost his life, I believe it says Handgan Royal Mill

[rosie99]

Handgan Royd   

[arthurk]

The second word is Royd - a common element in Yorkshire place names, meaning a clearing.

I haven't found anything to identify Handgan Royd Mill, other than a location in Hebden Bridge - see http://www.hebdenbridgehistory.org.uk/archive/downloads/billsofsale.pdf (quite near the top of the page)

[sallyyorks]

'Royd'
It's a local place name term

[MaureeninNY]

Hanging Royd Mill?
http://www.fustianopolis.co.uk/page.php?id=14

Maureen

[arthurk]

I saw Hanging Royd Mill on a map and wondered if it might be the same. However, the map showed it as being used for some kind of textile manufacture, whereas the document I came across mentioned a corn miller.

Maureen's find seems to suggest that it was indeed the same building: it was originally a corn mill, owned by the Cockcroft family (which is what my find said), but was later used for producing fustian. And Maureen's document also suggests some variation in the name of the mill.

[JJen]

There are a number of newspaper articles referring to Hanging Royd Mill at Hebden Bridge.

JJ

[Duck]

Many thanks everyone, it all makes sense, Robert was a fustian cutter

Thanks once again

Simon

[ollie_r]

Yep it's Hangingroyd Mill. Lay where Waterside Fold in Hebden Bridge now is.

"It was originally a corn mill, owned by the Cockcroft family (which is what my find said), but was later used for producing fustian. And Maureen's document also suggests some variation in the name of the mill."

Earliest surviving records (Halifax-cum-Heptonstall manor) have it rented out to the Robertshaw family from at least the 1570s. It passed through several generations, before Richard Robertshaw sold it to his first cousin William Cockcroft in the 1670s/80s. I understand that these mills were once lucrative when tenants of the manor had to pay to use them, but by the early 1600s the operators of some of the other Halifax mills started to complain they were too expensive to maintain and too many people were evading using them.

Also it is constantly referred to as a "corn mill" but I don't think they could grow corn in that area? I always took these to be bad Latin translations of a flour grinding mill for oats and barley.