The story of more than 250 children forced to move from London to work in a Burley-in-Wharfedale mill is told in a new book.

The child labourers, some as young as seven, were employed at Greenholme Mills at the start of the 19th century as ‘pauper apprentices’.

Information unearthed about the children now features in Greenholme Mills Remembered Again, by historian Dennis Warwick, of Burley.

Medical records show 260 paupers were working as apprentices in 1802.

“It was common practice at the start of the 19th century for paupers to be shipped all over the country to work in mills,” said Mr Warwick. “By all accounts, the children who were sent to Burley-in-Wharfedale were reasonably well looked after in comparison with others elsewhere in Britain.”

The book goes back to 1792 when Greenholme Mills was founded by Jonas Whitaker and Partners, for cotton production. The mills went into decline after the Second World War and closed in 1966 after an arson attack.

Today, small businesses operate from the site and a hydro-electric turbine is being installed.

Mr Warwick’s book updates a collaboration, Greenholme Mills Remember-ed, published in 1988 with his late wife, Margaret, and uses fresh details uncovered by Katrina Honeyman, a professor of history at Leeds University.

Mrs Warwick, who died in May, did much of the work for the updated book.

The book will be unveiled at Burley Library on Saturday, from 9am with proceeds going to the Marie Curie Hospice in Bradford. The book will be on sale from Burley Library, Burley Post Office and The Grove Bookshop in Ilkley, costing £5.