Washwheel Mill (Bleach Works), Cheesden Valley, near Birtle, Greater Manchester.

Fairly Hidden away upon the moors above Elbut Lane, Birtle Road and Deeply Vale Lane in the Cheesden Valley, near Old Birtle, Greater Manchester, are the ruins of a former bleach mill called Lower Washwheel or Lower Wheel. It was built by James Almond (his residence was about half a mile further up the valley at Deeply Vale) sometime in the early 19th century as a cotton spinning mill, but later in the 1880s, the mill was bought by Joseph (James) Shepherd who ran it as a bleach works. The mill at Washwheel survived until the early 1900s, possibly as late as 1930, but as a somewhat scaled-down industrial site by then. In the 1950s some of the mill building remained, but after that these remaining structures had been demolished and the stonework taken away. The former mill's chimney still stands as do the access bridge and stone becks, and the mill lodges are still to be seen and some other industrial remains can just about be made out if you look for them. The site of the former bleach mill can be found at Grid Reference SD 8286114120.

A.V.Sandiford & T.E.Ashworth writing in 1981 tell us that: "In the 1880's the Lower Works at Washwheel was taken over by Joseph Shepherd for the bleaching of cotten waste and there is still evidence of the stone becks used to hold the scouring liquors. These were of some 65 cubic feet and probably held around 400 gallons of solution. Though the Cheesden Brook did not provide power for the mill the water for processing was taken from sluices a short distance up-stream and fed to a lodge on the west bank of the brook. From there it flowed through a twenty inch diameter pipe, over the brook to another lodge on the east bank. Supply to an adjacent third lodge was supplemented by a stream leading from a source on the moors above. i >

Sandiford & Ashworth go on to tell us more about Washwheel Bleach Mill. Heading south from Deeply Vale:"On recrossing the stone bridge and joining the road south we continue down the valley,the overgrown drive which once led to James Almond's house on our immediate right. Ahead on the skyline can be seen a radio transmission mast and to the left a large water tank. These landmarks stand above Birtle Dene and give the direction of our journey. A short distance beyond Almond's house we leave the road and follow a footpath to the right leading to a chimney amid a clump of trees. The chimney was that of Washwheel Mill, the last concern to closein the valley, and on closer inspection it can be seen to have been extended by brickwork, possibly to avoid the effect of down draughts. The corroded remains of the pipe, until recently, linked the lodges across the stream and the remains of the scouring becks can still be found near the base of the chimney. The Lancashire boiler lay parallel to the stream close to the bridge, but was wrenched from its housing and hauled away in a lorry in the middle of the night by some no doubt enthusiastic scrap dealer in the early 1950's. A cavity filled with the undergrowth is the only remaining evidence, but fragments of iron pipe at the end may be the remains of an 'economiser', an invention allowing water being fed to the boiler to be preheated by pipes carrying flue gases from the boiler."

H.D. Clayton writes in 1979:"Wash Wheel. This mill was a bleachworks, driven by steam, and owned by Almonds, the ruins of whose house can be seen in pleasant surroundings a little further up the valley. It was reached by a bridge over the brook from Birtle and had access up the hill in Ashworth Road. The mill closed in the 1930s"

Sources of information:-

Sandiford A.V. & Ashworth T.E., The Forgotten Valley, Bury and District Local History Society, 1981.

Clayton, H.D., A History of Ashworth near Rochdale, Ashworth Hall, Rochdale, 1979.

Copyright © RayS57, 2025.

Four Acre Mill, Cheesden Pasture, Turn Village, Near Edenfield.

On the windswept Fecit Hill above Cheesden Pasture, 1 mile from Turn Village to the northwest of Knowl Hill, near where the Grain Brook flows into the Cheesden Brook are the now very sad and scant remains of what was Four Acre Mill (OS Grid Ref: SD 827175). A section of the mill wall used to stand there but has had to be demolished for safety reasons. Four Acre Mill was built as a Woollen Mill just before 1810 by John and George Haworth - who were both farmers at Croston Close in the Cheesden Valley. The mill later became a cotton spinning mill. John Haworth also built Great Lodge (now dried up) about half a mile further up on the moor to help feed the brook at Four Acre, and an embankment was also built. George Haworth also ran mills at Lower Croston Close in the Cheesden Valley, and Coal Bank (Carr Woods) in the Ashworth Valley roughly between the period 1830 and 1860. Admittedly, the Haworth brothers did not always see eye-to-eye and would often fall out over business ventures. Four Acre Mill had closed down by the late 19th century.

A.V. Sandiford & T.E. Ashworth tell us more about Four Acre Mill:"The history of the Cheesden Valley is dominated by three names; The Ashworths, the Ramsbottoms and the Haworths and from them emerges a figure whose enterprise, perhaps ruthless enterprise, did much to develop the industries of the upper valley in their formative years. The man was John Haworth who with his brother George was a farmer of Croston Close. Before he was thirty he was operating a mill in Croston Close Bottoms a little way downstream from Cheesden Lumb and he ran another, Four Acre Mill, high up on the moors above Cheesden. Four Acre was powered by a waterwheel thirty six feet in diameter and four feet in width and it took all of Haworth's ingenuity to provide a head of water to drive it. The task of harnessing the waters of the Cheesden Brook to the valley industries was an exacting one to every mill owner, but Haworth at Four Acre, situated well upstream, it was a particular challenge. But it was one to which he proved more than equal.

"The mill lay only a short distance from the confluence of the Cheesden and Grane Brooks but the Cheesden was not of sufficient height to provide a goyt for the lodge at Four Acre. The Grane Brook, however, was higher so Haworth built an embankment across the former and diverted the water into the latter. Furthermore, in the triangle thus formed the earth was excavated to provide useful extra storage at little expense to the construction. A weir, constructed a few yards from the confluence, can still be seen and from it the goyt can be traced to the lodge above the mill.

"But Haworth later turned to a greater concept. Despite the ingenuity of their con-struction the mills, in their early years, were still heavily dependent on a regular rainfall and workers were at times called from their beds to work long hours at their machine when stormwater flooded down the valley to turn the wheels. Haworth was far from satisfied with this situation and literally with shovel in hand led the construction of a lodge, later known as Great Lodge, where the Cheesden Brook rose among peat covered moorland 1478 feet above sea level. He erected an embankment across a narrow neck of the valley to impound the water draining from the moss some four-hundred yards to the north east, and fitted sluices to guarantee a steady flow of water to the industries below.

"When the work was complete he called a meeting of the valley mill owners and offered the use of the water to each of them. The acceptance would have been unanimou but for one dissenter. so Haworth in his tempestuous manner, replied 'if all don't want it, then none shall have it!' and kept the sluices closed. Perhaps he relented later for Great Lodge was, in fact, used and provided a valuable service in regulating the work of the mills.

"The dissenter may possibly have been his brother George. History has provided countlesss examples of the bitterness which can exist between members of a family and it would appear that the Haworth brothers were no exception. John's daughter, Alice, often recalled in later years - a time shortly after the brothers quarrelled when George became ill. Convinced his end was near he despatched a messenger to request John to visit him so that the breach existing between them could be healed. John, it is said, listened to the request, paused for a moment then turned to the messenger and replied 'Now thee goo back an' tell tell 'im as sent thee to get on' wi' 'is deeing. I want to see him neither dead nor alive!'".

Sources of above text information:-

Photo (top) Four Acre Mill remains by Kevin Waterhouse (Creative Commons):https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7255201

A.V. Sandiford & T.E. Ashworth, The Forgotten Valley, Bury and District Local History Society, 1981.

Copyright © RayS57, 2025.

Radcliffe Tower, Near Bury, Lancashire - its History and Legends.

A few miles to the south of Bury, Lancashire, is the historic building known as Radcliffe Tower, which is located just to the east of the River Irwell, at Radcliffe. It was built way back in the early 15th century when it started its life as a timber-framed manor house (locally it was referred to as the hall); the tower being a defensive pele with very strong and thick walls in case of raiders from the North. A second tower was never built. However, the house itself was demolished in the last century after being in use for agricultural purposes before its eventual demise, leaving the tower behind, which had been in a semi ruinous state for some time, though the Ministry of Buildings and Works has been taking care of it for a long time now. The partly ruined Tower is now a local landmark, and, no doubt local people will know the 'Legend' and subsequent poem regarding 'Fair Ellen of Radcliffe' who died in the most horrid of circumstances at the old manor house with the wicked stepmother the culprit. There is also the legend of the ghostly 'Black Dog of Radcliffe Tower', which is now long forgotten, but was linked with the tragic Fair Ellen.

Pennine Magazine (1985) tells us that: "James de Radcliffe got a licence to build a timber hall with two stone towers in 1403. There's no evidence that the second tower was ever built and the hall disappeared last century, leaving the tower - 50ft by 28ft, with five 5ft thick wall - rising 20ft or so from the ground, which had a natural defence in the Irwell, in a loop of which it lies. The historian Whitaker noted that the hall had several interesting features when he visited it in 1781. The hall had gone by 1841, when Samuel Bamford noted the fine barrel-vaulted room at the base of the tower and wrote "unless it be protected from further wanton outrage it must soon share the fate of the hall". It wasn't and it has. But what remains is still impressive. Catholic families were imprisoned here by the Earl of Derby in 1592, for refusing to attend Church of England services.

"Like all good towers, Radcliffe has a legend attached - in this case a particularly good one. Like many other folk tales it involves a loving father, a beautiful daughter and a wicked stepmother - who'd be a stepmother with stories like Snow White, Hansel and Gretel etc? In true fairy-tale style, the daughter, Fair Ellen of Radcliffe, just had to go and the wicked stepmother persuaded the master cook to do her bidding in the dastardly deed. One day, when the tower was the centre of a hunting party and the ladies were out riding, Fair Ellen was sent back to the tower by her stepmother to tell the cook to get the meal ready and "kill the fair white doe." He would know what she meant, the stepmother explained. The cook seized a knife and told the girl that she was the "fair white doe". But the little scullion boy, seeing his intention, begged to be allowed to take her place. The cook refused and told the lad that if he spoke a word the same fate would befall him.

"The Lord of Radcliffe missed his daughter at the meal and was told by the stepmother that she had run away to become a nun. The cook served an enormous pie, but as the lord was about to cut it open, the scullion boy came in and told him what had happened, and that his daughter was inside. The Lord, having lost his only child, made the boy his heir for bravely offering to take Fair Ellen's place."

Sources and References:-

Colour Photo (top) Radcliffe Tower by David Dixon (Geograph). https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1687127

Pennine magazine, Vol. 4 No. 5 June/July 1983. Pennine Heritage (Pennine Development Ltd.,)The Birchcliffe Centre, Hebden Bridge, West Yorks.

Copyright © RayS57, 2024.

Clegg Hall, Smithy Bridge, Littleborough, Near Rochdale, its History and the Clegg Hall Boggart.

Clegg Hall at Smithy Bridge in Littleborough, near Rochdale, has recently been re-stored, but it was in a state of disrepair from the 1920s onwards. There was possibly a medieval building on the very same site in the mid 12th century which might have been referred to as Clegg Hall, but the four-storey Grade II listed building that we see today called Clegg Hall dates from the late 16th to early 17th century. It was even in use as a public house in the 19th century! So far as we know the hall does not take its name from the Clegg family who resided at the earlier hall back in medieval times but from local place-names Great Clegg and Little Clegg. There is also the famous legend of the Clegg Hall boggart which has survived for many centuries - with one room in particular being the site of the haunting. The newly renovated hall is located 2 miles southwest of Littleborough and half a mile south of Smithy Bridge on Clegg Hall Road at OS grid reference: SD 92241448.

Kathleen Eyre writing in 1979 tells us about the Clegg Hall Boggart: She says "Built about 1600 by Theophilus Ashton, Clegg Hall stands derelict by the Rochdale Canal. From 1818 to 1869 it was a public house called the "Black Sloven" - the name of a favourite hunting mare of legendary speed which belonged to a former owner, Mr. Charles Turner. He died in January, 1733, and the mare walked in the cortege carrying his hunting regalia. Clegg Hall had a peculiar reputation and was believed to be haunted. Traditionally, a wicked uncle, guardian of the orphaned heirs, threw the children into the moat and claimed the estate for himself. The Boggart Chamber became a place to be avoided. During the Commonwealth era, there were hints of counterfeiting activities in the vaults and cellars of Clegg Hall."

Ken Howarth wrote in 1993 that: "Clegg Hall lies quite close to Hollingworth Lake near Rochdale. It has been derelict for many years, but still remains an impressive ruin even to this day. Some time about the 13th or 14th century, a wicked uncle destroyed the lawful heirs of Clegg Hall and estates - two orphan children that were left in his care - by throwing them over a balcony into a moat. Clearly the wicked uncle, much in Babes in the Wood vein, wanted their inheritance, what happened to him and whether he was successful in his quest is not known. However, ghostly spirits or boggarts began to disturb the peace, even after the house had been substantially rebuilt. Various attempts were made to lay the ghosts. A pious monk who claimed to be able to lay the ghosts told the local people that the ghosts would only be quietened by the sacrifice of a body and a soul. The pious monk told them to bring the bodyof a cockand the soul of shoe. Thus ended the laying of the Clegg Hall boggarts. During a visit in 1972, I was told that footsteps had been heard in the Old Hall. Several local people had seen an apparition of an old man with a pipe in his mouth walking in an old works nearby. Perhaps the boggart still stalks the ruins? Who knows?"

Sources and References used:

Photo (Top) Clegg Hall, near Littleborough, Lancashire by Dr Neil Clifton (Creative Commons). https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/193719. Kathleen Eyre, Lancashire Legends, Dalesman, 1979. Howarth, Kenneth, Ghosts, Traditions & Legends Of OLD LANCASHIRE, Sigma, 1993.

Copyright © RayS57, 2024.

The History and Geography of Red Lumb and Wolstenholme, near Norden, Rochdale.

The picturesque hamlet of Red Lumb lies just off the A680 Edenfield Road near Norden, Rochdale, in the shadow of, and on the lower slopes of the conical shaped, Knowl Hill. The etymology of the place-name Red Lumb is uncertain though it possibly means 'a small valley with red soil or clay', but that is open to interpretation. The lane through the hamlet winds its way along passing by what used to be a textile mill that made cauduroy clothing, but now it's called 'the Meadows' and is a complex of modern luxory flats, very sadly. The mill, situated beside Boyd's Brook, was built in the 1840s and was for most of its life a cotton spinning manufacturing establishment. It eventually closed down and was later converted into private apartments - in about 2005. The lanes further along branch off and become trackways called Red Lumb Street - while in the opposite direction - the other farm trackway is called Over Town Lane.

There were several coal mines scattered around the hamlet - Red Lumb Colliery being the main pit - the area rich in the commodity of coal - but the mine at Red Lumb closed down in the 1950s following a tragic accident there. Other coal mines were located at Knowl, Bamford Closes, and at Wolstenholme Fold, a bit further along Edenfield Road in the direction of Norden, and at Cheesden Bar (Cheesden Bridge) in the opposite direction there was another coal mine. There was also a coal mine at Wind Hill opposite the Ashworth Moor Reservoir. However, all these coal mines have long since closed dowm and in most cases there is now nothing much to see at ground level.

There are several farms scattered around Red Lumb hamlet and the moors nearby - the area being rich in agriculture. Farms include Lower, Middle and Higher Red Lumb; Knowl Farm and Top o 'th' Royds Farm and Bamford Closes Farm. Above the hamlet of Wolstenholme another hamlet, Rain Shore and the former bleach and Dye works and cotton spinning mills (upper and lower), which were demolished to make way for a modern housing estate with Greenbooth Reservoir close by, while beyond that the smaller Naden Reservoirs. The etymology of the 12th century Old English place-name Wolstenholme is possibly derived from Wulfstan's Holme which is maybe an island on raised dry land or “Holme” refers to a piece of land located by a river or stream, often submerged during floods. Wolstenholme Hall, a Gothic-style ediface, was built in 1850 by a Mr George Goodwin of North Staffordshire and was built with bricks from that county. It became a military hospital in World War I, but the hall is now a restaurant called Nutters.

Baitings Mill on Rainshore Road (Over Town Lane), Wolstenholme, was marked on the Ordnance Survey map as Baitings Mill (cotton) in 1848 and in 1890 as Baitings Mill (cotton). In 1908 it was marked on the OS map as Baitings Mill (fustian) and in 1923 as Baitings Mill (fustian). Then in 1961 it appeared on the OS map as Mill. But in 1986 the mill was known as Cudsworth's Mill and made cotton fustian cloth for corduroy material. The building was demolished after 2000, and by 2003 there was a new housing development on that site, which is now known as Baitings Close.

The former Red Lumb Mill, now called The Meadows, is located at: SD 84256 15593 and Wolstenholme Hall is at: SD 8482 1508. The former Baitings Mill, now known as Baitings Close, was located at: SD 8524 1479. Rain Shore bleach and Dye works and cotton mills, now a modern housing estate, were at SD 8522 1540.

https://www.heywoodhistory.com/2018/01/mills-p-r.html

https://www.heywoodhistory.com/2018/01/mills-a-z.html

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Approach_Road_to_Red_Lumb_-_geograph.org.uk_-_214068.jpg

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/59681

Copyright © RayS57, 2024.

Bamford Woollen Mills, Bamford, Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Sadly Bamford Woollen mills are no longer in existence as they made way for modern day housing in the early 1980s. Murrayfield, Burnthorpe Close, Ryburn Square and Porritt Close are on that site today at OS Grid Reference: SD 86191272. The large red-brick mill complex along with its own reservoir (mill pond) at the rear stood near the junction of Norden Road and War Office Road in the pretty village of Bamford for many, many years and gave employment to the good folk of Rochdale and the surrounding villages for well over a hundred years or more. The mill seems to have been built about 1880 but there was perhaps an earlier industrial building on that site? At that time (1880) it was owned and run by Samuel Porritt and Sons, who also ran Meadowcroft fulling mill beside the River Roch on Bury Road near Heywood from 1880. Samuel Porritt & Sons were also associated with a mill at Gnat Bank between Crimble and Heywood.

In 1891 Samuel Porritt and Sons ran the mill as a fullers and finishers. There were 160 looms, blanketings, tapes, roller cloths etc at that time, so obviously a thriving textile mill with the clatter of looms day-in-day-out and during the nighttime too for well over a hundred years. There is a Porritt Close named after the mill-owners down Norden Road, Bamford, even today! In the 1960s and 1970s it was still in operation, but by 1980 the mill was in decline and it finally closed down in 1982; after that the mill was demolished, making way for a modern housing estate - situated to the west of Dixon Fold.

The Porritt family’s legacy as mill owners contributed significantly to the economic and social fabric of these towns (Rochdale and Heywood) during the 19th century. Their mills were hubs of industry, weaving together the threads of progress and prosperity at the time when the Industrial Revolution was at its peak. The family continued to run Bamford mill up to more recent times until its closure and have always been well remembered and honoured in the locality.

Grace's Guide gives the following information: "Samuel Porritt and Sons of Bamford, Rochdale 1891 Directory: Listed as Woollen manufacturers. 1914 Merged with Porritt Brothers and Austin, Joseph Porritt and Sons, and J. H. Spencer and Sons, to form Porritt and Spencer."

Sources & References:-

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Samuel_Porritt_and_Sons

https://www.heywoodhistory.com/2018/01/mills-a-z.html https://www.heywoodhistory.com/2018/01/mills-i-p.html

https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/24747

Copyright © RayS57, 2024.

Ashworth Mill, Carr Woods, Near Nordon, Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Located near to School Lane in Carr Woods, near Norden, Rochdale (National Grid Reference SD 85441349) are the ruins of Ashworth fulling mill. A three-storey section of the ruined mill wall has survived the ravages of two hundred years or so and stands, now rather forlornly, beside the Naden Brook and its mill lodges and waterfalls between The Rake and School Lane (deep in the ravine beneath where the lane goes over the Naden Brook). Ashworth Mill was probably built in the early 1800s, if not some years before that, and by 1816 it had been rebuilt. One Edmund Ashworth was employed at the mill as a fuller in 1808. During the 1840s and up until the 1890s it was still a fulling mill, but by the early 1900s it had closed down and thereafter became derelict. Along with the extensive ruins and foundations of the old mill there are some parts of the old machinary, including waterwheel and winding gear-wheel for the weir, etc. Access to the mill was between Waterloo Farm and The Rake - just before the bridge!

H.D.Clayton writing in 1979 tells us more: "A little further upstream, on the opposite bank, are the extensive ruins of Ashworth Fulling Mill still in part standing three storeys high. In 1816 it is mentioned as being newly erected. On the ground lies a wooden driving shaft with pinions on each end. It appearsto be the main driving shaft from the waterwheel and to consist of a whole tree trunk. The stream was fed into two lodges and a very high stone weir constructed so that an imposing waterfall is the result."

A.V.Sandiford & T.E.Ashworth writing in 1981/1992 tell us about the process of fulling cloth:"Fulling is a process by which woollen cloth is subjected to heat, moisture and pressure such that the scaliness of the fibres became locked together and 'felting' is induced. In earliest times, as the curious murals of Pompeii confirm, fulling was achieved by the trampling of the cloth underfoot, hence the name Walker. But his strenous task was eventually replaced by the fulling stocks where the cloth was placed in a semicircular trough containing a solution of fullers earth, a colloidal substance which aided the fulling or felting action. Here it was pounded by heavy beech head hammers operated from a cam on a rotating shaft, which drove the fabric forward and round in the trough until the treatment was complete. Cloths varied in the amount of shrinkage according to the construction of the yarn and weave and even depending on the breed of sheep from which the wool came. The fulling stocks were probably one of the first steps in the mechanisation of textile manufactureand the term 'fulling miller' suggests that in the early days perhapsthe corn miller with sufficient capital to buy a set of stocks and the possession of a good watermill could turn to fulling as an alternative or even supplementary occupation. The ambitious fuller would often choose to extend his service to carding, bleaching and dyeing, processes not suited to the domestic system, and this was clearly the case at Cheesden Lumb Mill."

Not a great deal is known about the history of Ashworth fulling mill. It employed people from the valley and probably a bit further afield. The mill was built by the Ashworth family who were the landowners thereabouts; their Estate was said to be around 1,000 acres and was mainly pasture land. The Ashworth family ran the Ashworth fulling mill from the early 1800s and they also built and ran another mill at Lower Clough. Jonathan Ashworth of Ashworth fulling mill being described as 'a guardian of the poor' in 1867. The Ashworth family lived at Upper Clough Farm - said to date back to 1636. The Ashworth's are buried in the graveyard at St James' Chapel on Chapel Lane overlooking Carr Woods.

Sources & References:-

Photo of Ashworth Mill, Carr Woods, by David Dixon (Creative Commons) https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1679361

Clayton, H. D., A History of Ashworth near Rochdale, 1979.

Sandiford A. V., & Ashworth T. E., The Forgotten Valley, Bury and District Local History Society, 1981 & 2000.

Copyright © RayS57, 2023