Holbeck Anti-Corn Mill Association was set up by seven workers from Benyon’s Flax Mill.
The mill was owned by two brothers, Thomas and Benjamin Benyon who in 1793 were partners of John Marshall. It was no easy working relationship and Marshall bought the brothers out in 1804. It was about this time that the Benyons built a flax mill in Meadow Lane, Thomas took charge of the mill while Benjamin returned home to Shrewsbury.
By 1816 it was one of the largest and more modern factories in Europe with its dressing mill five-storeys high. Using steam engines purchased from Matthew Murray they produced yarn, linen, canvas and sailcloth. Conditions in the mill were harsh with children working from five in the morning until nine in the evening. It was here that the seven workers started a new movement.
It is recognised that the Co-operative Movement had been launched by the Pioneer Society in Rochdale in 1844 in an attempt to provide the people of the working class with quality food at a price they could afford. In 1847 the seven workers at Benyons flax mill in Holbeck formed the Holbeck Anti-Corn Mill Association in order to erect a mill and provide their own unadulterated flour ‘to preserve ourselves from the invasion of covetous and merciless men in future’.
The term Anti-Mill was used to designate opposition to the private millers of the day.
The Association held a meeting in a room behind the Union Tavern on 1 March 1847 at seven o’clock when each member was asked to contribute the amount of twenty shillings paid in weekly instalments for the purpose of renting a mill until the funds were available to erect a mill of their own which would be the property of the subscribers, their heirs, administrators, or assignees, forever, in order to supply them with flour and that only. The Committee wished to raise 1,000 members to carry out their requirements. The Committee were Robert Wilson Ambler, John Park, Joseph Darley, Robert Ambler, James Jackson, William Ward, and Joseph Nowell.
October 1847 saw the start The Peoples Flour Mill to provide unadulterated flour to members at the lowest possible price, not as with the normal practice of it being diluted with Plaster of Paris, etc. It started with about 1,500 members who paid the sum of one guinea (£1.05p) each. The Society was a freehold mill in Marshall Street, Holbeck, and was governed by a Board of 20 Directors, 10 of which were chosen half-yearly by ballot.
The mill was Lot No.5 on the Round Foundry sales plan and was next to Lot No.7 and formed three-sides of a square against the erecting shop. The wing by Marshall Street was marked flax mill and it was bought by the Leeds Mill Co-operative in 1848 and was described as ‘a substantial fireproof mill, and previously used by Brown & Company who it is known had a scribbling mill in Holbeck in 1790. The mill being 150 feet by 35 feet and five-storeys high also had two warehouses and a 30hp engine. The cost of the mill and its conversion amounted to over £12,000.
Extra machinery was installed in 1871 and 1874 and a new 40hp engine and boiler was installed in 1876 with more machinery being added the following year. In October 1881 the mill ‘burnt down’ and the Co-operative Insurance Company paid out £4,000 for the stock and £3,000 for the machinery, this then seems to suggest that the mill was indeed fireproof, especially when it was reopened as a roller mill the following year. Before the fire the mill had 22 pairs of stones for grinding and there were three boilers in the basement.
The mill is shown on the 1815 map and was used as a flax mill from at least 1820 by Brown & Company and its position on the Benyon Beck suggests that the mill may have been water-powered but since there is reference to Brown having a 12hp engine it would seem more than likely it was chosen because it offered a water supply for flax spinning and the engine boiler. This water was probably from the Bempton Beck which ran through the property and is shown on the sales plan as passing through what later became the entrance and passing under the far block; later its course was diverted when Campfield Mill was built.
In 1854 it changed its remit to not only providing flour but also to supplying provisions and changed its name to the Leeds Co-operative Flour & Provision Society. The organisation flourished and in 1856 it opened it first shop in Briggate, although this proved to be a failure. Nevertheless, the Society continued to expand and was always conscious of its responsibilities to its workers.
By the 1860s it was the largest Co-operative in the country and in 1866 it was the first Leeds company to offer the workers a half-day holiday each week. The Society’s head offices were opened in Albion Street in 1884 and for the next 50 years it became known as the Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society, LICS, or simply the Co-op.
The Society expanded its provisions business to include meat, milk, clothing, fuel, footwear, and a variety of other services. To achieve all this it owned its own farms, boot factory, brushy works, provision warehouses, joiners’ workshops, builders’ yard, and its own coal wharf. By 1896 it owned 70 local stores and was providing for 33,000 members and, according to the Yorkshire Factory Times, ‘the Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society is the largest on earth’.
While not going on to be a full account of the Co-op it is interesting to see how it all started and the reasons behind the formation of the Society but as we know all things whether good or bad alter and today all we are left with is a Blue Plaque at roughly the site of where it all started, on the gatepost on the entrance to Leodis Court (opposite Temple Mill) in Marshall Street.
Main photo: Buildings on the left are Leeds Co-op Flour Mill five storey 1848 (top) nearest building became Flour Mill in 1905
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