 The Crow Green tannery was situated at the south @-@ west end of the town and was already in existence in 1816 . It had a water @-@ powered bark mill and 47 tan pits at that date . It was owned by the Selwood family for much of the 19th and 20th centuries , who probably purchased it from James Whitby around 1830 , and it was often referred to as Selwood 's tannery . It suffered from fires in 1831 , 1867 and 1958 . In 1881 it employed 48 people and over 100 in 1958 ( 8 % of the local workforce at the time ) . One of the major products of the factory in the nineteenth century was high @-@ quality sole leather , but during the Second World War , only poor @-@ quality hides , such as buffalo , were allocated to the firm . The business was badly damaged by the invention of rubber stick @-@ on shoe soles which reduced the demand for sole leather from shoe repairers . It finally finished operation in 1967 when the leather side of the business was sold to a Yorkshire firm . 
