John/Keith Frankish
The mill was built in c, 1830 and remained
in the Frankish family until 1871 when it was sold, presumably to a
family named Bratley. In 1904 there was a fire at the Frankish bakery
in Sea View Street, Cleethorpes and my grandfather was able to carry on
baking by using the ovens at the Mill, which were not then in use, for
about a fortnight while the bakery in Sea View Street was being
rebuilt/repaired. The mill was vacated by its tenant in 1905 and Mrs.
Bratley persuaded my grandfather
( Fred Drewery Frankish) to become a tenant of the Mill again which he
did on a five year tenancy. During the tenancy two new sails were put
on to the mill by Thompsons of Alford but shortly thereafter the large
houses at the top of Mill Road were built and they cut off the wind
from the mill. Then the stones were taken out and the sails removed and
they went back to Thompsons. My grandfather then built a mill in
Nicholson Street, Cleethorpes. This was not a windmill, it was powered
by a gas engine.
My grandfather was the last of the baking
family of Frankish's who worked in the mill. The family, as best I can
see appear to be from Market Rasen although there are Frankishes across
Yorkshire and Lincolnshire with branches all over the place. My
Grandfather always said that the family had moved to Cleethorpes from
Faldingworth at the beginning of the 19th century. The bakery was
established in 1813 in Cleethorpes (according to the old sign above the
door) My father has a photograph of the mill and knows much more
than I. My grandfather was interviewed and a record
(recording and transcripts) is held I think within the CleethorpesTown Hall
archives.
The mill was built on land owned by John
Nicholson, Mayor of Grimsby 1842-43, My great, great great grandfather (I
think!) Thomas Frankish married John Nicholson's sister. I think they
rented the mill and lived there and my great great grandfather was born
there in 1836. They worked the mill until John Nicholson died in 1855
or 1856. The mill was bought by the Bratley family from Brigg in
1871. It is not clear who used the mill between 1856 1871 if the
family continued in tenancy even if they moved but still worked the
mill. The bakery was moved to 24 Seaview Street in 1871, (it was
burnt down in 1904 but rebuilt and back in business in 10-12 days - my
grandfather's transcribed recollection of this event are hilarious, the
fire engine couldn't get there in time because the horses that dragged it
had been put out to pasture that day and they couldn't round them
up!). The family again rented the mill between 1905 and 1910 after Mrs
Bratley left. The mill however was obscured by big houses being built
there stopping the wind apparently and so a new mechanically powered mill
was built on Nicholson Street and was in use until 1922-23. The old
mills works were returned to the people who fitted the mill in Alford and
thence presumably to Gainsborough.
I can remember my grandfather Frederick Skelton
Frankish boastfully telling me that he was used to carrying hundredweight
sacks of grain and flour in and out of the mill. He had wanted
to go to sea in a fishing smack but his father died young when Fred was in
his early teens and so as the eldest he was, by the sounds of it apprenticed
into a Mill near Hull, from which could be seen the sails of a mill owned by
J V (Joey) Rank (his son was J Arthur Rank of the Film Industrybefore returning to Cleethorpes and running the family business until his retirement. He lived until he was 92 died in 1986 (born 29/91894).
