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
