Springfield |Mill

[eric]

Here's a poser! If you stand in the yard of Springfield Mill (where the furniture project is on Oakworth Road opposite the Health Centre), and look at the roof, just under the gutter, there is a (or at least what looks like) a cast iron bracket, with a single ring in the end above each of the windows on the top floor, the one window that doesn't have a bracket looks to have had a new lintel put in, does anyone have any idea what these were for? Had it been a modern building, I would have guessed at supports for the window cleaners platform, but when the mill was built, I don't think window cleaning would have been very high on the priority list!

[fsharpminor]

I will be in Keighley tonight and see what I make of it.

[alumpot]

The single rings above windows in mills were there for a bosuns chair to be slung from them, window cleaning was important in the early days of textiles because there was very little artificial lighting so they needed as much daylight as possible

[fsharpminor]

Yes I had a look last night and came to the same conclusion, though I suppose that the rings could have also been used to arrange a block and tackle for lifting heavy things in via the window.

[barcroftlad]

I think both responses are probably correct. Most of the multi storey mills had a pulley system for raising and lowering the raw materials and compacted bales onto and off the trays of trucks.

[Andy Wade]

I think the bosun's chair idea is the most likely for the iron rings above the wondows as Springfield mill has a special section with a girder hoist for lifting bales and other heavy items in. Each floor has full height doors to allow access from this hoist.

[eric]

I must admit I hadn't thought about the lighting before, but it does stand to reason they would need as much light as possible, I wonder why other mills never adopted the idea (at least I've never noticed them if they did).