A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

by

Patricia M Hay
1

959

A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

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SOME OF THEADVANTAGES OF
WORKING WITH CENTRES OF
INTEREST
THE INTRODUCTION lo The Reporl on
the Primary School states that "Subjects
are not independent entities, but divisions
within the generalfield of knowledge," and
this clearly illustrates the essential purpose of Centres of lntereSt.

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Knowledge is a unity, and Junior School

children are not specialists - their search

for knowledge is in one field, the field of
their own insatiable curiosity. This curiosity cannot be satisfied in a specialised di-

vision of subjects into set lessons; instead, the curriculum should be planned
so that it both stimulates and satisfies the
children's search for knowledge and. Even

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more important, it allows for an overlapping of interests.

Work with Centres of lnterest has
proved that these ideals can be notably
achieved, and the problem ofsubjectspecialisation ceases. The work should rise,
naturally and spontaneously, from the children's own ideas and interests and, if this
is so, it is in line with their own natural

A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

benefits until the dissolution of the monasteries.

From Henry Vlll, the mill passed inio

the Cholmley family, and a plaque set in

the centre of the main wall fronting the

road reads:
ERECTEDATTHE EXPENSE
of NATHAL. CHOLMLEY
BY PHILIP WILLIAMS, ENGINEER.
1752.

Below this, another plaque testifies:

AUREM DEI DONUM FRUMENTUM
MOLIMUS

('The golden grain, God's gift, we grind'

or, more idiomatically, 'We grind wheat,
Ruswarp Mill; burnt down on September 251h, 191'1, as seen from across the Esk.
development.As the children work on their

specialised subjects.

'projects', they realise the inter-dependence of one subject on another, and

RUSWARP MILL IN THE PAST

school work is brought in connection with

living reality.
Once the subject has become realiy in-

THERE lS NO certain evidence as to

when the mill was founded but, as early
as 1'1 08, there is evidence that 'Agge-

teresting to the children, they delve far

milne, Cocchemilne and Ruswarpe Milne

were, arlongst others, given to the Whitby

deeper into its geographical, historical and

other implications than would have been
thought possible for children of that age
in set lessons.Any child who is especially
interested in one aspect of it, perhaps the
historical, can really get to grips with the
subject, going far further on his own, perhaps with a little help from the teacher,
than he could if there was the rest of the

class to consider, many of whom might

have no interest in the subject.lnformation
and reference books, seemingly far too
difficult for the children's reading ability,
are tackled, the relevant parts being noted

carefully. Reading ability improves, and

the children learn to observe carefully, to
sift salient information from reference
books, and to deduce and see the signifi-

monastery for ever'. The husbandmen

had to grind their corn at the Lord's Mill
and give him one-thirteenth in return The
Abbot's book beginning 1155, records ihat
Wlliam de Percy gave the millto the monastery, and the monks of Whitby Abbey
had to pray constantly for the soul of the
donor. Ruswarp, with the mill and the
water of the River Esk on which it stands,
became part of Whitby Strand, belonging

the golden gift of God' )

It is evident that the lord of the manor,

Nathaniel Cholmley, and his engineer

Philip \A/illiams, built for posterlty, because
the walls of the bottom floors are four feet
thick. lf testimony is needed as to the quality of the construction, apart from the thick-

ness, it only remains to be said that in

spite of all the vicissitudes of the mill, of
fire and floods, the main walls have stood,
deFying the worst thai the elements could
bring against them - hence the immunity
of the two plaques on the wall facing the
road.

THE FIRES
THE MILL'S HISTORY has been punctuated with three fires. After ihe first fire,
the mill was rebuilt and leased to Messrs
t{owlett and Mathews for 99 years. lt then
passed to a Mr Grayson who worked it

Percy after he had succeeded his uncle

in 1100. The farms and mills were kept in

for 60 years and then sold it to a Mr Henry

Bell, who had it for the next 40 years.
ln 191 1 , the mill was gutted by fire for
the third time since its foundation and, as

the hands of the monks, who drew all

can be seen from the photographs, only

to the monks, and given by William de

cance of various facts. The teacher

should help to develop this enquiring and
appreciative attitude by putting experiences in their way which provide food for
imagination, stimulus, and satisfaction

for curiosity.
Naturally there are bound to be many
gaps in this plan, some of which might
have been covered in oral lessons. Some-

thing which the child would not have

gained in such lessons, howevel but
which will be of inlinite value to him for
the rest of his life, is the ability to find out
facts for himself. This ability, coupled with
a stimulated enquiring mind and a background of knowledge resulting from his
own explorations, provide him with a very
firm foundation for further study in more

The smouldering mill seen from The Carrs.

A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

RUSWARPMILL
I saw it in its beauty - a noble solid pile,
Prosperity seem'd ever upon its face to smile.
Both day and night'twas busy - the humming of the wheel
Became to us like music * a song of flour and meal.
The carts seern'd ever loading, to bear the stuff away,
The teams of willing horses pass'd up and down each day.
No hint of such drsasfer the faintest heaft did thrill,
We thought'twould stand lor ages - the dear old Ruswarp Mill.

I saw it in destruction, when flames were leaping high Attirnes the fiery tongues seem'd to pierce the very sky;
We heard the crack of timber - the thud of iron fall,
Machinery demolished * the prty of it all.
The air was suffacating with smolre and falling fire,
The awtul, unchecked flames leapt up higher still, and higher.
Wrth bated breath we uratch'd it, our heafts half sick wifh fear,
ln thinking of the danger to f,ouses standing near.
But, God be thank'd, no dwelling was caught in fiery clutch,
Though glass was crack'd, doors b/lster'd, and gardens suffered much,
The apples on the fruit trees were roasted, so 'fls said.
Buf, b/essed thaught, no life lost- not e'en a horse rs dead.
We watched the fiery furnace, all helpless to subdue
The cruel flames which lick'd it, and lapped itthrough and through.
We had no means to save it, though doubt ess much goodwill;
Na fire appliance handy - oh! Poor old Ruswarp Mill.

I saw it in its ruin, a dreary, piteous sight,

A noble building gutted

wrecked in a single

nighl

The blacken'd walls gave token of ravage fierce and keen,

The smol<y pall still whisper'd of havoc that had been.

ln future days, man's labour the building may restore,

But old assochfions will come back never more;
And though a new erection may pleasant hopes fulfil,
Some heads will ache and sorrow for dear old Ruswarp Mill.

in

1911

ln 1924. MrThomas Henry Hay bought

the mill, quite undeterred by the fact that,
having been gutted by fire three times, it
was now considered unlucky and possessed of a 'hoodoo'. Mr Hay had previ-

ously been engaged in the service of

Messrs C D Mills Ltd of York but, in 1905,
he decided to start up in business on his

own. He first acquired a mill

at

Northallerton, and founded the firm ihat

still bears the name of 'Thomas H Hay
and Sons'then, 19 years later, he bought
Ruswarp Mili. He took over the mill as a

going concern, retaining the same employees (two of whom are still working at

the mill) and the same horses for haul-

placed by a model with sbinless steel

blades. lf the turbine needs cleaning or
mending, the river water can be shut ofi
with sluices.
By 1928, My Hay considered that his
two sons had gained sufficient experience
to stand on their own two feet, and he entrusted the mill to their care, Mr Cyril Hay
becoming technical expert and his brotheq
Mr Philip Hay, taking charge of the office.

As soon as the two brothers had taken

over the mill, they replaced the two water-wheels and suction gas engine, that
had driven it previously, with a crude oil
engine and a modern water turbine that
developed 100HP.
ln 1930, the 'hoodoo' that seemed to
dog the mill, but that had been quiescent
since the fire of 1911, made its presence
felt again - this time by water. This was
the second flood the mill had suffered, and
in that year, and again in 1931, the mill

was flooded to the second floor, damage

amounting to several thousands of

pounds. lt position is such that it tends to
be rather susceptible to flooding, for it lies
in a dip in the road, close to the river bank.
To build it in the dip may well have been
part of the original plan, in order to obtain

an adequate height of water to drive the

old water wheel, which gave the mill its
original source of power.
On the first occasion of the flood, many
people in cottages near the mill were mareached to the level of the bedroom floors.

to the surrounding district, and as the gra-

dient of the hill leading out of Ruswarp is

1'.3Y,, six horses were yoked together to
pull the loaded waggons to the top. The
horses were always kept in the peak of
condition, mainly so that they could work
to their utmost ability, but also as an advertisement for the fine quality provender
that the mill produced.
It is interesting to note that one of the
first rollermen to work at the mill was ihe
late Frank Stacey, ihe inventor of the
famous arc bleaching process, and the
friendship of the miller and the inventor
continued until the latter's death.

ln the house adjoining the mill offices,

there was a young baby, and milk had to
be sent across for it by life-line, for the
force of the currenl was such that no boat
could stay afloat in it. Eventually, the lifeboat was dragged overland from \Mritby,

As the River Esk on which the rnill

stands is tidal, the mill cannot rely solely
on water power, and so until 1932, when
water was not available or the supply was
inadequate, the engine was driven by a

suction gas plant which produced gas

age

At that time there were only about

mained of the same patlern, although two

or three years ago the old one was re-

rooned for 24 hours, and the water

MA Fry
the main walls were left standing.
Mr M A Fry was moved to write the
verses above after seeing the rnill on fire

zonlal and with spiral blades, has re-

10

men working in the mill, for the output was

only a quarter of the amount produced

now. 1'1 heavy shire horses were used
for transporting the flour and provender

from anthracite Then. as now, the water

flowed through two grids before entering
the mill, so that no river debris could pass
through the turbine. The turbine, which
is like a water-wheel except for being hori-

The flood, 1930.

A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

edge, a roomy four-storeyed building with

the ground floor raised above the road

level so that it is at cart and lorry height
and showing no signs, internally or externally, of the troubles through which it has
passed.

The flood, 1930.

and launched to the rescue. Messrs Cyril
and Philip Hay were marooned in the mill
for, having rushed across to the office to
save the books and ledgers, they found
themselves cut off and had to take refuge
on one of the upper floors of the mill,
where they remained until the flood subsided.
When the waters had gone down, it

was found that, apart from the ruined

stocks and damaged machines, a ihick
deposit of slime and mud had to be removed from spouts, elevators, machines,

walls and floors. Despite all these difficulties, however, the management and
staff worked all hours of the day and night,

and the mill was started up again after a

stoppage or only two or three days.
The damage that had been done, however, was so great that the firm decided
on a complete re-model, and enlisted the
services of Messrs E R & F Turner Ltd of
lpswich. Work commenced early in 1932,
under the able direction of Mr W Floyde,
and had just got underway when the Esk
rose again in flood. Although many of the
machines were still in the basement awaiting transport to the appropriate floors, little damage was done. Messrs Turner had
installed an efficient hoist for the purposes
of the work in hand and, with the help of
their millwrights who had been called out

in the middle of the night, the valuable

new equipment was hoisted out of dan-

as for the Empire Wheat and70o/o Extrac-

tion classes. The result was a great triumph; at the first attempt, the firm car-

ried off the Milling cup in the Empire

Wheat class, and achieved second place
in the 70% Extraction class. ln addition,
they were awarded the bronze medal in
the National Mark class, but were promptly
disqualified.
By 1936, the last horse had retired and

the transport was taken over by motor

wagons. There is siill evidence of the tlme
when the mill relied solely on horses for
its transport, however, for a weathered
and moss-covered mounting block stands

As the local demand for goods rose,

and the output of the mill increased correspondingly, greater storage space was
urgently needed. To combat the problem
of adequate space, the silo was built in
1946 (see the photographs on the next
page). lt took about nine months to complete, and built of reinforced concrete,
standing '1 00 feet high, it is used for storing grain.
Another large warehouse was built at
the station end of the mill in 1949, and
this houses the cubing machine at one
end (This machine combines cereals,
molasses, animal and vegetable proteins,
minerals and vitamins to form various animal feeding cubes.) The warehouse also
garages two of the new diesel motor wagons.

Behind the warehouse lies the sheltered mill garden, growing a great variety
of vegetables and, behind this, bordering
the river, is a narrow orchard. This produces apples, both for cooking and eat-

firmly nearthe front of the mill, and a nowconverted warehouse shows signs of its
former use as a stable

ing, pears and many sorts of plums; in

springtime the ground is carpeted with

THE MODERN RUSWARP MILL

working in the mill. Eight of the men are

lorry drivers, and some of the younger
boys, who have just left school, travel as
drivers' mates. The girl is in charge of
the packing department. She works the
large sewing machine for sewing up the
sacks, and also packs up the small paper
bags of flour for sale in the shops.

daffodils and narcissi.

There are now 37 men and one girl

lN RUSWARP. the road divides: one road
crosses the river and goes via Sneaton
to Scarborough. the other runs beside the
river and leads through Sleights to York.
The mill is situated on the latter, bordered
on one side by the road, and on the other
by the River Esk.

The railway station is only about 100

yards from the mill and, although not used

now for despatching mill products, it is a

great asset fortransporting incoming grain

Mr Philip Hay has five people to help him

ofice- three men and two girl secretaries. One of the men spends most of his time
in the

and the raw materials for provender

travelling round the farms and outlying villages,

while Mr Hay himself travels to \A/hitby each

manufaciuring.

week and goes to the Guisborough and

The mill itself stands right on the road's

Redcar areas every fortnight.

ger.

Messrs Hay were so certain that the

new mill was gorng to be a success that

they had set aside a hundred bags of

choice English wheat in orderthai the first
grist might prove a worthy entry for the
Wheat Flour Competitions of 1932. After

the flood, these bags were found half a

mile down the river, and in no state for
competition grinding.
It was not until 1937 that Messrs Hay
decided to send in another entry for the
\Mreat Flour Competitions. The entry form
lay forgotien until the very last moment,
and in his hurry to send it off, My Cyril
Hay entered the firm for the National Mark
class, for which it was not eligible. as well

General views of the mill: left, the dam; right, the second grid.

A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

Stages in the construction of the silo.

causes the flour to rise, and so it is a very

important constituent in bread flour when
light and palatable bread is needed. Biscuit flour, of course, need not rise at all.

Ruswarp Mill imports wheat from

Canada, America, Argentina (the Plate
area), lndia (the Karachi area), Australia,
Italy and France, and also uses some local grain from the surrounding farms. The
imported grain arrives mainly by road from
Hull, Liverpool and Manchester.

Unloading at the silo.

._,

On arrival at the mill, the wheat !s discharged straight from the sacks, down a
slide, into the silo hoppers. From the hoppers, the grain is taken to the top of the
silo by bucket elevators or by'pneumatic
intake' (suction), and there it is given its
first dry cleaning. Straq coal, sand and
various other foreign particles that have
become mixed with the grain on its journey in the ship's hold, are removed.

f,* ih

After this preliminary cleaning, the grain

passes over to the mill by means of a

heavy-gauge steel pipe, which is made
io revolve so that the wear is uniform.
This aerial pipeway can be easily seen

The foreman, who has been working

at the mill for 13 years, spends much of
his time in the mill laboratory, when not
supervising work in the mill. He tests the
flour for colour and gluten quality, and also

tests samples of incoming wheat. The

laboratory is equipped with a specially
large oven where sample loaves can be
test.baked.

A permanent and extremely-skilled

miilwright / maintenance engineer is working at the mill every day, His accomplish-

menls cover a very wide range, but his

main tasks are renewing and repairing the

wood and metal spouts, electric and

acetylene welding equipmeni, inspeciing
and maintaining the electric motors, and
making many motor replacements on his
own lathe.

THE WORK OF THE MILL AS !T

GHANGES WHEAT GRAINS

on some of the photographs.

Once inside the mill, the grain is again
thoroughly dry-cleaned (see the photograph on the nexi page). lt passes
through sieves which take out any chaff
and broken grains, and then over indented

INTO FLOUR
THE EQUIPMENT in British mills is perhaps the finest in the world, for as the
country cannot grow nearly enough wheat
for its own consumption, a large amount
has to be imported. The British mills have,
therefore, to be adapted to grind any kind
of wheat from any country, whereas countries which can grow more than they need
for home consumption, and need never
import grain, can equip their mills to suit
wheat grown in the immediate vicinity,
which varies very little.
Nearly all English wheat is of the soft
variety, and as the gluten is not very
strong, is mainly suitable for making into
biscuit flour. Gluten is the subslance that

The mill, showing the first grid and

sluices.

A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

The silo nearing completion.

cylinders which take out oats, rye, barley

and any small seeds such as cockle or
charlock.
A large washer gives the wheat a thorough washing, and then the excess moisture is dried off in a centrifugal 'whizzer'.
The wheat, which is still quite damp, then
passes into conditioning bins where the
different varieties gain the same moisture
content Hard dry wheats, usually the foreign ones, are left in the longest, so that
the moisture penetrates through the skin
into the grain. Engiish wheats usually
have a high moisture contenl anC need
not stay in the bins for long. This uniformity of moisture content is very necessary for efficient miiling for, if the grain is
The dry-cleaning and milling separator.

too dry, the outer skin (the bran) will break

up into small pieces and spoil the colour

of the finished flour. lt is a notable fact

The rotating pipe leading from the silo

to the mill.

Another lorry laden with wheat, arrrives

at the mill.

that the cleaning of the wheat is perhaps

the most important part of the milling proc-

ess for, unless this is done very thoroughly, it is impossible to make good flour:

From the bins, the wheat is blended

according to the type of flour required, and
the wheat available. The blend of wheats
chosen for making bread flour is chosen
to give strength - this makes the bread
rise - colour and flavour. A large proporiion of the wheats in bread flour are the

Manitoba wheats, the strongest in the

world. Red winter wheat, Australian,

French, ltalian or lndian types are also
used, together with some native English
wheat.

After blending, the wheat goes through

emery scourers, which both remove any
loose parts of the skin which, if not eliminated, would get into the finished product

Unloading at the new warehouse.

A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

type deals with the exhaust from the
brush machine, the scourer and the
separator, while on the third floor a mod-

ern, fully-enclosed, suction-type dust

collector takes the exhaust from the re-

duction rolls, the purifiers and the

centrifugals. lt is very notable that, despite the great variety of processes going on in the mill, there is a complete
absence of dust everywhere.

When the flour has been ground to

its finest consistency, it is treated with
bleaching agents and improvers to en-

sure stability and uniformity. This

means that when it is baked in a modern automatic plant bakery, a standard
formula for the addition of water, yeast
and salt will suit any flour and will produce loaves of an even size, an essential feature when loaves have to be automatically sllced and wrapped. Plant
bakeries now produce the majority of
bread sold in this country.
The whole sequence of processes
used in the manufaciure of flour is now
over, and the finished flour is ready to
be 'sacked off' and sold. The flour is
sacked automatically (see the photograph on the next page) by means of a
screw conveyor working gravitationally.
Two 12-stone sacks are attached to the
two pipe ends. When one sack is full
and the valve closes, the other valve
opens automatically and fills the other
sack. This gives the man in charge of
the machine time to replace the first full
sack with an empty one, and the proc-

The break rolls.

and spoil the colour, and also takes off

the 'beard', the small hairs at the end
of the grain. A horizontai brushing machine cleans the crease of the wheat
and then it is ready to pass on to the
first break roll, where the actual milling
begi ns.

The break rolls are grooved spirally;

the bottom roll, running slower than the
top one, tends to hold the wheat while

the top fast-moving roll shears the

wheat open to release the 'semolina' the inside of the wheat. The 'stock',
which is both the semolina and the bran,
passes to centrifugal dressing machines or plan sifters, which separate

the bran from the semolina. The bran

passes to yet another break roll. to have

any semolina still adhering removed.

There are four or five of these grooved

ess continues. With this automatic

sacking machine, it means that, from
the grain entering the silo hoppers to
the finished flour entering the market,

rolls, the same process continuing un-

til all the semolina is removed. The

semolina passes on to smooth reduction rolls, both running at the same

every process is fully automatic, and the

speed and gradually reducing the size

of the semoiina particles to a fine flour.
The semolina is graded into even-sized
granules so that each reduction roli is
handling stock of an even size. To provide plenty of roll surface for these different-sized particles, there are about
10 different reduciion rolls. The dress-

material is untouched by hand.

The eight lorries owned by the mill
are not always sufficient to transport the

goods produced there, and so other

haulage contractors are often temporarily employed. They take the flour to
within approximately a 60-mile radius of
(c)

Dressing machines: (c) interior view.

ing machines and plansifters are covered with fine mesh wire and silk.
Each machine in ihe rnill has a current of air drawn through it. This helps
to keep it cool. but the main purpose is
to take away any moisture which, if allowed to accumulate, would paste up
the silks and prevent them from dressing the flour. The air passes through
an air cleaner which extracts any dust

lnside a break roll.

and releases only clean air into the milling system and the atmosphere. On the
second floor of the mill, a large multitubular dust collector of lhe pressure

The Plansifter.

A Short History of Ruswarp Mill

be of a sufficient toughness to make all
crumbiing impossible and, lastly, structural uniformiiy is a necessity. Uniform
work is obtained only when the stone
coating just worn off is replaced by another of equal structure.

For grinding the grain, the bottom

stone remains stationary, while the iop

one revolves on it. Each stone has

grooves cut into it, running outwards
from the centre hole in the top stone,
where the wheat is fed in. As it is
ground between the grooved stones,
the wheat is gradually reduced in size
until the finished nreal emerges round
the edges. This produces brown flour
The sacking machine.

containing the whole wheat berry. Quite

a lot of wholemeal is now made on the
roller plants, but some medical opinion

Whitby; much goes to the thickly-popu-

lated Teesside, South Durham and

considers the old-fashioned stoneground flour the most beneficial to

some to the Scarborough area.

health.

Not only plain white flour is ground

in the mill, but other types as well.
One of these, of which a good deal is
made, is Stone-Ground Wholemeal.
As the name suggests, it is ground on
French burr stones which are extremely hard, and in appearance similar to quartz. These are the stones
on which ali flour was ground before

the advent of roller milling less than

100 years ago. Roller milling was first
established successfully in Hungary in
1839, but for many years after that,
many mills in England were still producing stone-ground flour.
The stones used should have four at-

tributes, Firstly, they must be hard

enough io guarantee a lengthy period
of service. Stones apt to become polished must be avoided, and this is possible if the stone is of porous structure.
Those are besi on which the porousness depends on the granular structure,
then when the upper coat of the stone
is worn off, it lays bare a fresh surface,
just as rough as the one rubbed off. lt
is indispensable that the stone should

Seif-raising flour has become increasingly popular, although it has been

made for over 50 years, and it is usu-

ally ground from the softer types of

wheat - the English, French orAustralian. Acid, calcium, phosphaies and bicarbonate of soda are mixed in to give
the flour self-raising properties of its
own and so save the housewife the

The orchard.

trouble of having to use baking powder

as a raising agent.
Biscuit flour is seldom nrade at
Ruswarp Mill, although some mills specialise in it. The problem involved is to
manufacture a flour that will always
make biscuits of uniform size, so that
they will fit exactly into the cardboard
cartons in which they are sold.
It can be seen from this that the chief

prcblem facing the miller

in

manufacturing fiour is to conform to a

uniform standard. When used by

automatic bakeries, the flour must
always rise in the given time and stand

ihe rather rough treatment given

by

machines, which have now replaced the

old hand methods.

The flour loaded and ready for

despatching.

The new warehouse,

A corner of the laboratory.

PhotographsbyPMHay

Filling and packing small paperbags of

flour.