The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-21 00:00:00

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT KIRKSTALL

ABBEY MILLS, NEAR LEEDS.

One of the most furious and destructive fires that
has occurred in this neighbourhood since that of
Messrs. Marshall and Benyon's factory, in Water-
lane, in this town, which took place on Saturday
morning, the 13th of February, 1796, was discovered
on Tuesday morning, in the Abbey Mills, near this
town, occupied by Messrs. Obadiah Willans and
Son, cloth manufacturers. These mills are very
extensive, forming three sides of a square, with
another building extending from the centre of the
north to that of the south side. The west end of
the building is five stories high, the three lower
rooms of which were occupied as a dryhouse, the
one above the dryhouse as a mule chamber, and the
upper story as a weaving shop. The men were at
work in the dryhouse till five minutes past four
o'clock that morning, but all was apparently safe
when they quitted the premises; but about half-past
five a }ire was discovered by the watchman in the
mule chamber, being the south-west corner. He
gave an alarm, and two men were sent to Leeds,a dis-
tance of three miles, for fire-engines. In the mean-
time the engine of St. Ann's Mill was obtained, but
it was applied to the adjoining corn-mill, belonging
to Mr. Priestman, to prevent the fire from goiug be-
yond the woollen manufactory. The fire spread
most rapidly along the west side, and to the north
and south wings, and a short time before six o'clock
it was at its climax; soon after which the roof of the
south and west sides of the factory fell in. The
Sun fire-engine arrived at a little past six o'clock,
and was followed by the Norwich Union, the Leeds
and Yorkshire, and the Leeds town engines. Three
of these were applied to the fames, and to the pre-
servationbaneednquite
t w o oi
atyheadt
consumedpuapr ntoof the factory which had not
bythatthepdaertvouwrhiniegh element,adjoins
Mr. Priestman's corn mill. Messrs. Willans and
Son's engine-house was very fortunately preserved.
Had not the progress of the flames been arrested in
that quarter, the destruction of the corn-mills, which
immediately adjoin the north side of the engine-
house., would have been inevitable. The fulling
stocks on the ground floor of the-north-east end of
the building, are also preserved, and upwards of a
thousand pieces of cloth were removed to a safe part
of the pranises with no other injury than that of
being wet and soiled. With these exceptions, the
whole is one mass of ruins. By this calamitous
event, from three to four hundred hands residing
chiefly in
ili Ks
rahnemd
Bramley,consisti
of
Irish famewill
Every means was d
be thrown out of employ.
to save the property; and the Sun fire engine arrived
Kirks tall,
t (many, Bon the spot, from Leeds, in nine minutes.—Leeds
urolefy
intelligcncer.

Sixteen sheep, the property of a farmer at
Liathatn, Leicestershire, were last week malieiously and
cruelly
destroyed by some miscreants, who, with a blunt
1.1)w lue'
instrument, beat their brains out.
A paragraph which appeared in our paper of
yesterday, and which we copied from a Morning paper of
the day preceding, mentioning that the Duke of WEL-
at the back of his carriage, bad been
attempted to ggagbe got hold of by robbers, was entirely without
foundation.

The name of GEORGE GODFREY GARNER,
who was convicted of embezzling the property of his em-
ployer, Joior THOMPSON, linen-draper,
street, and received sentence of 14 years' transportation,
wasat the October Old Bailey Sessions,by mistake in-
cited Join{ 00Drap• GARNE TT, of Parliament-