  We study UV-complete Froggatt-Nielsen-like models for the generation of mass
and mixing hierarchies, assuming that the integrated heavy fields are chiral
with respect to an abelian Froggatt-Nielsen symmetry. It modifies the mixed
anomalies with respect to the Standard Model gauge group, which opens up the
possibility to gauge the Froggatt-Nielsen symmetry without the need to
introduce additional spectator fermions, while keeping mass matrices usually
associated to anomalous flavour symmetries. We give specific examples where
this happens, and we study the flavourful axion which arises from an accidental
Peccei-Quinn symmetry in some of those models. Such an axion is typically more
coupled to matter than in models with spectator fermions.
