The Slingsby Family and Carleton

John Snoad

The Slingsby family owned and ran cotton spinning and weaving mills in Carleton from 1849 for a period of eighty years^[1]. Founded by John and William Slingsby, the brothers built the New Mill in 1861, passing on the company to their sons John Arthur and William Cecil^[2]. The influence of the family on Carleton was all embracing as was the dominance on the appearance of the local landscape of their mills and the resulting additional housing. William Cecil inherited his partnership first in 1897 but retired and moved away from Carleton only twelve years later in 1909, soon after he reached the age of sixty. John Arthur inherited his partnership in 1901 and continued with the business until the autumn of 1930, when economic conditions in the cotton trade world-wide made it no longer profitable. John Arthur was known for his business and public service interests, whilst William Cecil, although an effective business man on behalf of the mill, was known for his enthusiasm for mountaineering and his exploits in Norway, for which he had become famous. As the industrial Revolution, the demise of the cotton industry and the memory of John Arthur fade into the past, the memory of William Cecil Slingsby lives on as an outstanding pioneer in the world of mountaineering, especially in Norway. All four members of the family, and their wives, are buried in Saint Mary’s churchyard.

The photograph is of Slingby’s New Mill and Saint Mary’s Church taken from the the embankment of the modern bypass road.