The Tragedy of the First Belle Vue Mill

 Dewhursts moved their cotton business into Skipton in the 1820s, but the first mill wasn't to last long before succumbing to fire.  Here's extracts from the report in the Albion and The Star newspaper, 8th January 1831 (read in the British Newspaper Archive):

Another mill destroyed - On Sunday morning last, the newly erected worsted and cotton mill at Skipton belonging to Mr John Dewhurst was discovered to be on fire. Prompt assistance was rendered by a multitude of persons...had there been even one fire engine in the town...but there was none. Messengers were despatched to Keighley and Leeds, and though the Keighley engines were on the spot in 44 minutes...they arrived too late for nearly the whole of the valuable machinery and stock was destroyed...and the fine building a blackened ruin. The damage is estimated at 14,000 or 15,000, only about 8,000 of which is insured. How the fire originated no-one can precisely say,  but we add, with pain, that there is too much reason to believe that it was wilfully occasioned. The calamity has deprived between three and four hundred industrious persons of employment. A subscription for their relief has been commenced. 

The case of the fire at Skipton has been investigated...[by two of the County magistrates] without discovering anything on which to found an accurate decision. We understand that Mr Dewhurst is of the opinion that the catastrophe was accidental. 

The mill was rebuilt, though I have so far been unable to find a date for its completion. All written sources simply say that it was completed quickly. Dewhursts didn’t seem to suffer too much, as the mill buildings were continually expanded in the following decades. But the new building was furnished with its own fire brigade,  a service maintained throughout the years. 

A 1940s view of the inside of Belle Vue Mill

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