LITTON MILL


The Cotton mill at Litton was built in 1782 by Ellis Needham (1760-1830) and his cousin Thomas Frith on land leased from Lord Scardale. It was not a great success, and was for sale as soon as 1786. (see advertisment here from the Derby Mercury)

In 1786 William Newton (the framesmith and mechanic who had built Arkwright's first mill at Cressbrook in 1783) was offered a junior partnership of 200 pounds if he would overhaul and superintend the machinery thereafter. Newton was also to become partner in the Brough and Castleton cotton mills. 

A shortage of labour pushed Needham to use parish apprentices to work the mill, and the first apprentice house was built near the mill shortly before 1793. A second apprentice house was built in 1795 on land purchased on the south bank of the River Wye in the parish of Taddington.

In 1797 Newton left the partnership to become an innkeeper (having been left property by his Godmother on her death that year). This however was not a success and in 1800 he became bankrupt. Nevertheless he managed to retrieve his fortune and we next hear of him in 1810 being invited to manage Cressbrook mill for Francis Phillips.

After Newton's departure the history of the Litton Mill acquired notoriety through the Memoirs (published in 1832) of the London orphan apprentice Robert Blincoe who was employed for his term (1803-14) at Litton under Needham and purported to receive extremely harsh treatment. Needham's apprentices were obligated to work more than the statutory twelve hours every day; they were poorly fed, and were often callously and brutally treated. 

Their plight was presented in contrast to the paternal and humane treatment accorded to his young apprentices by William Newton at his nearby Cressbrook mills. It has to be remembered however that Blincoe's story was first published in serial form by the radical and controversial printer and publisher Richard Carlile (1790-1843), a disciple of Thomas Paine, and was ubsequently published in memoir form by John Doherty the founder of the National Union of Cotton Spinners. The story based on events that were alleged to have taken place 25 years earlier was clearly contrived as a sensational piece of propaganda by those seeking to reform the factory system."

After Needham's financial backer, Francis Haywood of Manchester became bankrupt in 1798, Needham sank deeper into financial difficulties. In 1815 Needham was declared bankrupt. At least 80 of his apprentices were left destitute and had to be supported on parish relief. In 1816 Lord Scarsdale canceled Needham's lease.

In 1819 the mill was again for sale, and by 1828 it was in ruins (see etching below). In 1874 the mill was destroyed by fire and a new mill was built, and little remains of the earlier buildings.