Simpson Clough Mills, Heywood, Near Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

The Ashworth road begins its long, 3 mile journey eastward at Simpson Clough, near Heywood - in what is a sunken stretch of lane - through a secluded wooded gorge where two brooks converge a little after the B6222 Bury And Rochdale Old Road, and just before the hamlet of Ashworth Fold. Where the lane dips down there is an industrial complex of old mill buildings beside the road known as Simpson Clough Mills. Here beside the Cheesden and Naden Brooks in about 1840 a woollen fulling mill was built and by 1880 it had become the woollen manufacturers of Oram Thomas & Sons. At the end of the 19th century it was a bleach mill run by Barkers. Then, in the late 1930s it was in the ownership of Crompton's, and, in the early 1940s it was taken over by the War Office and put to good use by them before being converted into a paper mill after the war. The mill was still in use for paper manufacturing in 2018 and beyond - with the name Union Papertech. H. D. Clayton writing in 1979 says of Simpson Clough:-

"When a mill was first built here is not known, but it was a prime site at the confluence of Cheesden and Naden Brooks and on Ashworth Road, and is thought to have been occupied by a Fulling Mill. Towards the end of the 19th century Barker Bros., bought the existing mill and built a large extension for their business of bleachers, dyers and finishers. They had 16 carthorses, kept in stables on the other side of the Bury Road, and delivered two loads of finished cloth to Manchester warehouses each working day, returning with loads of cloth for finishing. The first load left the millabout 6 a.m. and returned at 7 p.m., and the second left at 9 a.m. and did not get back till 11 p.m. The wagons had three horses each and the journey was broken at 'The Three Arrows' near Heaton Park for the horses to rest. One evening there was a fearful accident with the last load. It was customary for the carter, on reaching the Bury Road after ascending the hill from Hooley Bridge, to put on the brakes before going down the hill to the mill. On this occasion, whilst he was doing so, the horses ran away and crashed into the bridge at the bottom. One horse was so badly pierced by a shaft that it had to be destroyed and the cloth was scattered all over the road.

"Horses were eventually replaced by a Foden steam wagon and trailer which could take the Manchester cloth in one journey.

"The mill closed some years ago and was bought about 1945 by James R. Crompton & Bros. Ltd., a subsidiary to their Elton Paper Mills. This old established firm makes special papers, fundamentally different from other papers, as they are very light and made chiefly from long fibred Manila Hemp. They are of high porosity, low substance and a high strength/weight ratio and are used as stencil base tissue, teabags, filtration and many other uses. It is nice to know that the only mill still taking water from the Cheesden Brook contains the most modern machinery and exports its unique products all over the world."

References:-

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

https://www.heywoodhistory.com/2018/01/mills-s-u.html

http://www.unionpapertech.com/the-history-of-our-headquarters/

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2174839

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