Block ATextiles
Peter Jacksons
Textile production in the mill's original trade
Textile production in the mill's original trade
The mill from the air · Barkisland, West Yorkshire
Bowers Mill is a seventeenth-century water-powered fulling mill on the Black Brook at Barkisland, wrapped in open West Yorkshire countryside. For three hundred years it finished cloth for the wool trade; today its stone ranges hold workshops, a gym, a hotel and a wedding venue. A working mill still, just working differently.
The story of the mill
From fulling stocks to the present day
The mill was built to full cloth, pounding woven wool in water-driven stocks until it thickened into hard-wearing fabric. Generations of Barkisland families worked its floors as the wool trade rose and fell around them.
From the late 1990s the mill was repurposed into multiple units, and by 2023 it had grown into a bustling centre for business, leisure and industry, all while keeping its historical character: the tower still carries the BOWERS name, the pond still holds the mill's reflection, and cloth is still made on site.
Read more in the history of the mill.
Who works here
Block BLeisure & Fitness
Valley Fit
Gym and fitness studio at the heart of the mill
Gym and fitness studio at the heart of the mill
Block CAccommodation
Bowers Apart-hotel
Stay in the mill itself
Stay in the mill itself
Block DEvents & Weddings
The Venue
Weddings and events beside the mill pond
Weddings and events beside the mill pond
The mill in pictures
From the archive
From the archive
From Wool to Computers
How the punch cards that drove Yorkshire looms became the blueprint for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, and eventually the modern computer.
From the archive
From Luddites to AI
Textile workers smashed the machines that took their jobs two centuries ago. What can the Luddites teach us about the age of AI?