On Sunday 17th July 2011, at 2 p.m. on Water End Green, Brompton, near Northallerton, the Brompton Heritage Group, friends and helpers met for the official unveiling of their memorial to the linen workers of past centuries who wove linen in their own homes and sheds and later on in the Wilford and Yeoman/Pattison mills in the village.
The memorial is an octagonal seat based on the shape and width of the old Wilford Mill Chimney and is built with bricks rescued when it was demolished in 2003. The foundations were laid by members of the group themselves to make best use of funds.
In the centre of the seat is a large block of sandstone, created by the sculptor Charles Smith FRSA,into which has been carved the inscription “In memory of generations of Brompton Linen Workers. Erected by the B.H.G. 2011’
Funding of £9650 was granted towards the cost of this memorial by the Big Lottery Fund, which agreed with the Brompton Heritage Group that such an important part of the village’s past, about which many people are unaware, should be celebrated. A further gift of £100 from the Northallerton Branch of Lionesses was also received and acknowledged by the inclusion of their logo on the stone.
The official unveiling of the seat was performed by Mrs. Vera Brittain, who worked in the Yeoman/Pattison Mill after her return from service with the WAAF during the Second World War.
