First records of a mill on the site date back to circa 1795, where the mill was owned by John Race & Co and was known locally as Race’s Mill. The mill began life as a water wheel mill pulling the water from the adjacent river Calder, later the mill was transformed into a steam powered mill. Thd production of cloth was very lucrative and the mill soon began to flourish and grown in size.
The next records indicate the mill was built in 1823 by the Shaw family of Horbury, the mill stood some 3 storeys high and also had a boiler house and an adjacent row of mill cottages, at this time the mill employed some 40 workers of which many were children.
Times were hard and the working day started at 6am and finished at 7pm with sundays being the only day of rest. Many of the children employed at Dudfleet were below 10 years of age with the preferred age being 8 to 9 year old.
By 1887 the mill was owned and operated by Archer, Ritchie & Co and manufactured army and police cloth. This didn’t last long as reports show the mill stood empty for many years at the beginning of the 1900s. Records show the names of the overlookers at this time as George Audley (woollen) and Joseph Audsley (mill).
After a while the mill was purchased by James Benjamin Sykes and his brother and they began the manufacture of Melton cloth and ‘peg’ rugs, Sykes died in 1954 and the mill was sold to Mr H Hartley who used the mill to manufacture carpets.
Major changes came about in the 1950s and 1960s with the original mill, boiler house chimney and some of the workers cottages being demolished to make way for new weaving sheds and such to be added to the site.
The weaving sheds, boiler house and remaining workers cottages were purchased by Fur Fabrics in 1969 and they operated from the site until the mill finally closed in circa 2005. The mill has stood abandoned since that time.
There is records to show the mill has been the victim of arson attacks, firstly in 2012 and then again in 2017…
We entered the mill through an open doorway via what looked to be a loading bay , upon entering we found the first few open spaces to be quite fire damaged and the floor boards quite springy in places, the roof was all but colasped, we ventured further in and came across a few large rooms with concrete floors and what looked to be secure roofing. The room had some remains of the previous use dotted around.
We set out equipment up and started our investigation. It wasnt long before the Rempod began to indicate temperature fluctuations and the audible buzzer was sounding.
We continued and the K2s were beginning to light up and flash, we went to explore different areas and we could feel a presence with us which Kerrie our medium told us she felt was Joseph. Joseph wasnt a nice man and she felt he didn’t want us there and was keeping an eye on what we were doing…
We has our pir sensor light coming constantly on and off whilst we were there and shadowy figures were seen darting backwards and forwards.
Kerrie and myself ventured into one of the rooms and we immediately heard noises and voices in there , we walked over to a hole in the wall and we both felt a oppressive feeling in that area, we felt someone had taken their own life outside in that area and the abandoned mill was now their refuge….
The weather over the previous days had been quite heavy rain and being at the side of the river Calder we were aware of the river bursting its banks at various places along its route. We were very mindful of this. Whilst on a walk around we discovered the drain inside the building had come up tremendously and we felt it was time to leave…..
We made our way back through the way we came but we found time was quickly running out for us to safely leave, at points the water level inside the mill has about 3 to 4 inches and we were mindful of the floor and the fact it could collapse at any moment…
We all got out safely and all 7 team members were quickly accounted for……
Once outside we felt a horrible feeling of foreboding and doom…. we could remember that the mill workers preferred communication method was whistling… all around us was frantic whistling coming from what we believed was inside the mill….
Our night at the mill was over and depending on the safety of the mill now, who knows if we can ever return to finish our investigation there…….
White Rose Paranormal Investigations 