The Cornmill

THE 1854 AUCTION

The Warley Cornmills were owned by The Murgatroyd family for most of the time from the 13th Century until the mid 1850’s. The last Murgatroyds to run the mills were brothers Hartley (1797-1865) and John (1799-1873).

The brother's seem to have got into some financial difficulties and had to sell a lot of property in Luddenden and the surrounding valley including the Cornmills. These were sold at an auction held at the Murgatroyd Arms on 19th July 1854, neither of the Mills sold on the day, but both change hands shortly afterwards.

1854 Auction

The brochure includes two maps, the first shows all twenty lots in the valley.

The second map shows more detail of the village plots.

Lot 13 is Upper mill and includes the mill pond and a plot of land and sluices next to the weir. The map shows what each building is used for, the majority of the buildings are being used for malting barley ready for making beer.

Lot 14 is Lower mill. You can see the position of the water wheel, you can see that there is a boiler room and a chimney (so this mill has steam power). There are cottages to the south side of the mill and a building labelled as Counting House adjacent to the bridge. The land and building is Lot 14 is labelled as 'Holme' and it extends as far as the next weir on the brook. This whole area is now occupied by Blue Bell Walk.

Below is a copy of the previous map, highlighting Lot 13. This hand traced copy is part of a document drawn up in 1856 when Upper Mill was sold by Hartley and JOhn Murgatroyd to the Thompsons and their partner, Joseph Starkey who bought a third share in the mill.