Family firm weaves story from 400 years of history

Called A Story of a Yorkshire Mill: 400 Years of Cloth Making, the exhibition celebrates the heritage of Brooke’s Mill, a former wool textile manufacturer in Armitage Bridge, Huddersfield.

John Brooke and Sons can trace its history back to 1542 and is believed to be one of the oldest surviving family businesses in the country. The exhibition will be opened on October 4 by members of the Brooke family, previous mill workers and Huddersfield University history students who undertook research for the project.

The mill became an office park in the 1990s following the closure of the textile business and now houses over 30 businesses, including the North Light Gallery which is hosting the heritage exhibition.

Company director Mark Brooke said: “We have been in business in the Holme Valley for 19 generations, since my family leased a fulling mill here in 1541.

“We are delighted to be honouring all those who worked in the mill and the role the mill played in community life.”

Brooke’s Mill played an important role supplying cloth both for the Army and the Royal Navy, in both the Napoleonic War and the First World War.

It later made fabric for Marks & Spencer.