The Craven Herald

The Craven Herald, which managed to cover the event in great detail despite coming out the very next day, told how the fire started at 4pm on November 14, 1912. It took hold with amazing rapidity, burned for five hours and by midnight, all that was left was a smouldering wreck. The blaze was visible from miles around, and the following weekend thousands travelled to Gargrave to see the devastated mill, many buying souvenir photographs, hastily made into postcards. Collections were made at the scene and less than a week after the fire a meeting was held at the Gargrave Conservative Club when it was agreed to set up a Mill Fire Relief Fund to help the families of all those put out of work. The mill itself was owned by Messrs Whittle, Brindle and Co, and at the time of the outbreak, it was full of people and contained an exceptionally large stock of cotton. The mill had its own fire brigade and was fitted with sprinklers, but more help was needed and a call was put out to the retained Keighley Fire Brigade. Although the men of Skipton Fire Brigade turned up at the station in preparation to tackle the blaze, no call came to them and instead the fire was left to the Keighley firemen, villagers and the mill's own brigade. Of additional concern was the Gargrave gas supply, which was contained in a building next to the mill. As a precaution, supply was cut off, leaving villagers to light their homes with candles. The Herald reported that the 1912 fire was the third to hit the mill - the first in November 1865 and the second in 1874. "What this most recent outbreak means to the village of Gargrave it is difficult to contemplate," reported the Herald. "In an industrial sense, this beauty spot has been one of the most unfortunate of Craven villages, and just when there appeared every prospect of a run of prosperity - for Messrs Whittle and Brindle were working full time, with every indication of doing so for some months - there comes a catastrophe which will bring hardship to many homes during the prevailing winter." It was the main part of the mill that was hit by the fire. Some 26 windows long, and 10 windows wide, it stood about 500 yards from the main road between Gargrave and Skipton and on the banks of the River Aire. The fire was discovered at around 4.30pm in the "rope race" in the number one spinning room, situated on the first floor. Witnesses reported that the rope race suddenly ignited and in an incredibly short space of time the flames spread to a spinning mule, and then to the ceiling and then to the roof. "The occupants of the room immediately took what measures they could to prevent the fire spreading; the sprinklers did their work admirably and the brigade attached to the mill were quickly summoned and worked with commendable determination," reported the Herald. The building was evacuated, and fortunately, there was no panic. "The employees made their way to the fire escapes and descended them in perfect order, not a single mishap occurring beyond a few cases of fainting among women after they had reached a place of security," it was reported. "For a quarter of an hour or 20 minutes, the members of the mill brigade, who were reinforced by a host of willing helpers from the village, fought the flames to the best of their ability, but it was evident from the start that they were playing a losing game." It was just before 5pm, an hour after the fire broke out, that the call was made to Keighley, the fire brigade retained by Skipton Rural District Council for fires in its area. Ten men and a pump took more than 30 minutes to reach the fire, by which time the flames had a firm hold. "The ceiling of the first floor was demolished and the flames rapidly made their way to the roof of the upper storey, which was soon one mass of fire, casting into the sky a lurid light, which could be seen for many miles around," said the paper. "The scene was one of awesome grandeur, not without a touch of weirdness, accentuated by the hoarse cry of the buzzer, which was not stopped from the time it was set going to give the alarm until the steam in the boilers was exhausted and the flames had subsided into a dull red glow." Clearly, the job was too much for even the Keighley fire brigade who were able to do little more than stop the flames from spreading to other buildings. "This they succeeded in doing, although at considerable personal risk - a risk also shared by some employees of the firm. The wooden gangway connecting the building on the east side of the mill was hacked away by firemen and other assistants, who were for a considerable period in a position of imminent danger, in as much as the gable end was bulging ominously above them, and the flames were raging furiously in the first and second storeys." Witnesses saw the entire two storeys of the west gable of the building fall into the field and scattering tons of masonry in all directions. Fortunately, the masonry narrowly missed a group of firemen who had minutes earlier been standing close by. Had they not moved, it seemed, their deaths would have been inevitable, a tragedy that would have added greater gloom on the already stricken community, reported the Herald. Very quickly, the first and second floors of the building crashed into the lower storey and by 8pm the whole of its bottom portion was "blazing like a furnace". The surrounding fields were filled with sightseers, some there out of idle curiosity, but many were millworkers. By 9pm, the flames had started to reduce, and just before midnight there was nothing left but a smouldering wreckage. The following week, the Herald carried a report of a meeting of Skipton Urban Council on why was it that the town's fire brigade had not attended the fire. It was assumed that the brigade had "refused" to turn out, but the council was informed no request for assistance had been received. Councillors agreed that the current arrangement as to where the brigade should go was unclear, but that it had been told that its services were not needed. That said, there was nothing to stop members of the public calling for help, said councillors. Meanwhile, in Gargrave, the newly formed Mill Fire Relief Fund met on a regular basis to discuss donations, plan fundraising benefits and how to distribute the funds to the families. The fund committee further discussed getting the able-bodied men back into work, including on neighbouring estates, and how they could be employed clearing the mill site. At St Andrew's Church, Gargrave, the vicar, the Ven Archdeacon Kilner, called on villagers to support those affected by the disaster. The Herald thought that some good may come out of the fire and that when it was rebuilt there would be a weaving shed, which would mean the operators of the mill would be able to carry on their business more economically. "In all the fair district of Craven, no more suitable spot could be found," said the Herald. "Built close to the present mill, there would be no marring of this beauty spot."