|
Date: |
|
Description: | 18th August 1961. This is a daylight photograph, somewhat underexposed, of the fire at the Albert Mill which gave rise to the fire of the Town Hall Dome at the same time. The fire engine is in Back Wellington Street between the Town Hall on the right and the old ambulance station on the left. All three storeys of the Albert Mill are well alight on this photograph. Textile mills were notorious for causing severe fires mainly because the structure of the buildings often became soaked in oil and grease. In order to keep the pulled up rags and willeyed material together it was sprayed with oil, and most of the process in working the material involved spinning it at high speeds which gave the oil plenty of opportunity to fly off and impregnate wooden beams, floorboards and wooden machinery. In this instance the mill was a total write off. Before the fire it had been partly used for storing waste paper and so caught fire even more quickly. The police inspector's house in Wellington Street opposite the Town Hall also caught fire and had to be demolished. Photograph from the David Atkinson Archive. | License: | http://www.leodis.net/article.aspx?id=12 | Rights holder: | Leeds Central Library | Subjects: | Albert Mill Back Wellington Street Wellington Street fire fire engine | Source: | Leodis - A photographic archive of Leeds | Identifier: | http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?id=20... | Go to resource |
|
|