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Heritage walk

This page documents the Heritage Walk led by the Webmaster, Tim Boddington, as part of the annual Bollington Walking Festival. Participants who would like to know more than the script spoken during the walk are welcome to follow-up on this page which contains links to other history pages containing further information.

Introduction

  • Clarence mill c.1914Origin: Macclesfield Forest, farming, corn mills from 14thC; cotton mills on river from 1784;
  • Industries: Farming, Cotton, Stone quarrying, Coal mining; also corn milling, paper making, silk spinning; today paper coating (two mills), mixed commerce incl. IT and pharma support;
  • Mills: Bollington corn mill (14thC), Rainow mill (various from <16thC), Oak Bank (1784), Higher Mills (c.1789, 1830s), Waterhouse (1791), Lower Mills (1792), Ingersley Clough (1800), Defiance (1800), Lowerhouse (1818), Clarence (1831), Owlhurst (<1836), Adelphi (1856), Beehive (c.1862).
  • There were/are various other mills, 15 in total on the rivers from Rainow to Bollington.
  • Macclesfield Canal from 1831, then mills away from river; Clarence, Adelphi, Beehive and Bobbin mill.
  • Railway from 1869 to 1971; Now the Middlewood Way (walking, cycling, horse riding).
  • Population: 1811: 1500, 1851: 4600, 2015: c.7300, now over 8000; Cotton: very local immigration, mostly unskilled; Bleaching & Dyeing: skilled immigration from Lancashire.

Foot of Beeston Brow

  • Loft cottages
  • Arrival of Swindells from Disley looking for a mill – Cat Ladder

Queen Street

  • Originally the main street; 16 – 22 listed, 18thC
  • Built by Sheldons and Bradleys
  • Sheldon Place built early 19thC by Stephen Sheldon;

Defiance Brow

Hamson Drive

Turner Square

Church Street

  • Vine Street, Union Street, Hope Street (The Square); clearance 1960s;
  • Archway – 10 Church Street was The Grapes Inn, closed 1909;
  • St John’s School on corner of Vine Street;
  • Bungalows with added floors; note brickwork.

Chapel Street 

Turner Street

  • Whittaker’s bag mill (corn sacks etc.); later Bannister’s joinery workshop; burnt out 1990s; now apartments; listed II.

St John’s Church

  • Commissioner’s church built 1834; closed 2003; conversion to apartments; when? Listed II.

Lowther Street

  • School endowed by Lady Maud Lowther, 2nd wife of Thomas Legh of Lyme Hall; when education ceased it reverted to Crown Estate; now two houses + one in the playground; listed II.

Ingersley Vale

Higher mills

Lower mills

  • Antrobus built and rented out; 1792; cotton
  • Tullis Russell; paper coating mill (stamp paper), employee owned.

Rainow mill

  • Several mills on this site; originally a corn mill (possibly first in district); paper, cotton, and silk; corn mill let to the Adshead family as early as 1549;
  • Burnt down 1856, again in 1908, never rebuilt.
  • Mill Lane, part of a ‘salt way’, Middlewich to Buxton.
  • Mill pond filled in.

Ingersley Clough mill

(Not visited on the walk)

  • 1792/3, Edward Collier 1809, rebuilt after fire in 1819;
  • Cotton, workers’ cottages, managers house, apprentice house;
  • Water powered until 1950s, originally double wheel, later single wheel 56’x9’ largest on British mainland, leat 1803; Clough Pool; 1895 dynamos installed; never steam powered although there was a boiler for process steam, see hillside chimney; one of the first electric powered mills;
  • Wire conveyor (20thC) between Clough and Rainow mills (c.200m) for rolls of cloth;
  • The Swindells Era, 1821-42;
  • The printworks, 1842-78;
  • The bleachworks, 1878-1929; A J King (MP 1906-10); dyeing and bleaching;
  • Later 20th Century, Slater, Harrison & Co. and used initially as a printworks for litho and letterpress printing;
  • 1937, variety of companies and uses including dyeing and bleaching;
  • 1999, fire destroyed oldest building;
  • Recent demolition prior to redevelopment; exposure of covered river.

Waulk mill

  • Location uncertain but believed to have been close to Waulk Mill Farm house; woollen mill.

Up field path to Cow Lane

  • Notice coal mining on Kerridge Hill; miners’ cottages.

Adshead’s Barn Farm

  • Oldest property on this side of the valley built by George Adshead early 17thC;
  • James Shepley Chatterton 1839-1929, Milestone King in Bury Times;
  • Arthur Grindey, and sister, milk deliveries, trolly.

Lord Street

  • Cottages with ginnels; common yards, outside privies, second row of cottages behind first.
  • ‘Queensbench Building’, lodging for judiciary.

Through Cumberland Drive, Deanway, Mill Bank Court

  • Note Lower mills and location of pool.

High Street

Water Street

  • Built in 1830s; notice garrets.
  • Water Street School; secondary until 1964, little used since, now controlled by BIT who have developed it to make better use of it.
  • First cinema in Foundry Street.
  • Foundry in John Street.
  • Many shops.
  • River tunnel under canal.

Macclesfield Canal

Embankment / Aqueduct

  • Re-alignment of river and tunnel; construction of embankment; spread of failed attempt; all stone construction; beautiful stone aqueduct, largest structure on the Macclesfield canal.
  • Coal loading shed.

Clarence mill

Memorial Garden

  • Originally established 1920; new memorial stones consecrated 11/10/2015.

Coronation Gardens

  • Children’s playground built 1953, refurbed 2013

Palmerston Street

I am always pleased to field your questions – I may not always have an answer, but I may be able to point you in the right direction for one! Email me at: 
Tim Boddington, tim@happyvalley.org.uk 
www.happyvalley.org.uk 
The history pages: www.happyvalley.org.uk/history