Matthew Murray of Leeds: an early contractor delivering complete fireproof flax mills

The advent of the factory system for textile production in the 18th century gathered together an explosive mixture of wooden textile machines, textile dust, traditional buildings (including a lot of wood) and candles. The result was an extensive outbreak of mill fires, with many mills being burnt to the ground. Expensive fire insurance began to be offered. Mill owners such as William Strutt in Derbyshire began to attempt to eliminate the flammable materials in the mill construction, mainly wood. Strutt made major advances by replacing wooden floors by brick aches thrown from massive wooden beams that were themselves covered in plaster to retard burning. Along with his friend Charles Bage they evolved a further improvement by replacing the wooden beams with cast iron beams leading to the cast iron frame. Charles Bage was the first to build a mill with a cast iron frame which was located at Ditherington in Shrewsbury. Due mainly to his knowledge of iron he was admitted to the client’s partnership which became Marshall Benyon and Bage. The development of the cast iron frame in these early days was not properly uncovered until the 1950s and 1960s, William Fairbairn had published a book on the subject in 1854 which unfortunately contained little of accuracy concerning his forerunners in mill building.Footnote1 While the important early mills were recorded in the early decades after the Second World War including some of the foundries which supplied the cast iron work, less has been discovered about firms that may have specialised in the construction of such mills, in the infant days. Murray had worked for John Marshall and hence Marshall and Benyons and shared the experience when their new Mill B burnt to the ground Murray was transitioning from their employment to set up with David Wood as Murray and Wood to supply flax machinery, mill work and shortly thereafter steam engines. Murray and Wood’s first major work was to supply the millwork and machinery to the new Mill B. By 1797 they were building their own foundry and machine shops in Holbeck Leeds adjacent to Marshall’s Leeds mills. As the major supplier of machinery and millwork to Marshall and Benyons, and both new firms after the partnership dissolution, they will have been heavily involved in Ditherington Mill. Murray or Fenton Murray & Co (there were a number of personnel changes in the partnership) supplied many mills with machinery and steam engines and the connection to some of these mills indicates that the whole package including the mill was supplied by the firm. The cast iron beams used by the firm while starting with an inverted T section with a flat longitudinal bottom profile to the flange quickly developed into an unusual one with a parabolic longitudinal profile to the flange bottom before reverting in the 1820s to the flat profile. This bottom parabolic longitudinal profile gives a strong indication where it can be seen that the ironwork is by Fenton Murray & Co.