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Scott Hall Mill is situated in Buslingthorpe Vale, an area of Leeds rich in industrial history. The area was developed between the late 18th and early 20th century, part of which Leeds City Council has now designated as a conservation area due to this industrial heritage. Searching through the old maps and directories of Leeds we discovered our mill, which extends across 3 units, was once owned by John and George Smith who were corn millers, oil millers, seed crushers and stone merchants in the 1850-1860s. However upon closer inspection we saw that our part of the mill was missing on several maps and wasn't actually built until almost the turn of the century.
Through further research we found that In the 1880s–1890s the mill (including what is now Scott Hall Mills) was owned by William Oldroyd & Sons, of 10 Scott Hall Street, when it formed a much bigger series of mills that made glue. It's strange to imagine now that the grassy bank facing Scott Hall Mill was once home to the many mill workers, it was called Buslingthorpe Row. The people that lived there included market gardeners, watchmen, florists, washing machine makers, nurserymen, woollen spinners, dyers, pig dealers and maggot breeders. Nearby, people would train their falcons. Sadly these houses were demolished along with many others (including what was St Michael's Church next to the Primrose pub) in the slum clearances of the 1950/60s. You can still see what would have been the Springhill Tavern pub further up Buslingthorpe Lane, which was previously G.A. Donnelly & Sons.
The old farm house that still exists on Scott Hall Street used to be a farm which grew and supplied the flowers for Kirkgate market as well as growing forced Rhurbarb as part of what was the original Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle.