Description and History of Site:-
Two parallel ranges in red brick with linking bridge forming an 'H' This was the first textile-machine making factory built in Leeds, and almost certainly the first in Yorkshire. It was built by John Jubb, millwright and machine-maker, between mid-1787 and the end of 1788. Jubb produced machinery for cotton and for woollen/worsted manufacture, including scribbling, carding and spinning frames, worked also as a consultant millwright (which included installing gearing and fulling stocks, and in 1794 developed a sideline in threshing and winnowing machinery. He left Silver Street in 1796 for 'more commodious premises' in at Soho Works, Meadow Lane, Hunslet.

The Silver Street factory was taken over by William and Joseph Drabble, nephews of Jubb's first wife. Like him, they came from south Yorkshire, with strong connections to Wortley Forge. The Drabbles took up flax and hemp machine-making, and this became their main business. The premises appear to have been extended in the mid to late 1790s. As this was the oldest surviving part in 1834, Jubb's workshops had probably disappeared when a later extension took place. The Drabbles had bought Ox Close, a field of 1,284 sq. yds, in 1800, presumably for expansion. However their partnership fell apart in 1806, and both Joseph, in a new factory at Steander, and William continuing in Silver Street, were bankrupt by 1812.

The freehold factory site was offered the following year, in three lots. The first included the three-storey factory, measuring 18 yds by eight, with drums and shafts, counting house, dry-house and smith's shop, engine house, and an enclosed yard, powered by a 6-h.p. steam engine. Lot 2 was a warehouse and model chamber, with 251 sq. yds of vacant ground adjoining, Lot 3 a building used as a saw pit with 228 sq. yds of land. The whole had been 'lately used by Mr Drabble, in which he carried on the business of a machine-maker upon a large scale'. (Leeds Mercury, 19 Dec. 1812; Leeds Intelligencer, 10 May 1813)

Joseph Taylor and Joshua Wordsworth worked for the Drabbles, and married sisters, Martha and Hannah Drabble, who appear to have been their employers' cousins. When William Drabble failed, they set up in business with another former employee in Holbeck, moving into the Silver Street works in 1814. This grew into a large and highly regarded business, one of the main engineering sites in Leeds, producing flax as well as woollen and worsted machinery.

The factory was valued for insurance in 1817: 'mechanics workshop and engine house £650; going gear £50; steam engine £100… total (without contents) £800'. In their first decade at Silver Street, Taylor and Wordsworth exchanged Drabble's 6-h.p. engine for an 8-h.p. model made by Matthew Murray. They bought additional land in and around Silver Street: in 1819, a plot of about 600 sq. yds; a smaller area called Ox Close off Water Lane, in 1821; and 4,680 sq. yds known as Parson's Close in 1824. By 1834 the plant had been several times extended from Drabble's time, with a yet larger steam engine, of 10 h.p., brass and iron foundries, turning and filing shops, pattern- and model-making departments. A severe fire in 1844 destroyed some of the oldest section of the premises, gutting a three-storey building. The roof collapsed and flax and worsted machinery, work in progress, as well as tools, was lost. But fire engines prevented the fire spreading to an adjoining new three-storey factory, and the damage of £4,000 to £5,000 was covered by insurance. It seems there were other additions and alterations in 1847 and later in the C19.

Further Reading and References:-
Cookson, G. The age of machinery: engineering the Industrial Revolution, 1770-1850. Boydell & Brewer, 2018.

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Key Words :- textile engineering foundry iron cotton flax woollen machinery

Address :- Silver Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS11 9YW
Grid Ref :- SE 29353 32790
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.790603 , Long -1.555927
Local Authority :- Leeds Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Listed - Grade II
Historic England List No - 1096064,
Site Condition :- Site in alternative industrial use
Site Dates :- 1793 -
Record Date :- 23 June 2017

Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © Nick Nelson