Friday, January 13, 2006

Archi-Map Update

THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MY FOTOFACADE ARCHITECTURE BLOG AND INCLUDES INFORMATION ABOUT THE CHEESDEN VALLEY ARCHI-MAP

There's a lot been happening with my
archi-maps project recently. The maps include photographs and links to relevant information. To use the archi-maps you need to have the free Google Earth installed. If you haven't seen Google Earth you'll wonder why you ever did without it. To get into Google Earth there's a great blog here. To download any of the maps go to my archi-map page : buildings are being added regularly so use the update feature on the page to keep up to date.

Manchester, UK archi-map




Manchester was the industrial hothouse of England during the Industrial Revolution and is now at the forefront of urban design with new structures by world renowned architects such as Calatrava and
Ando.

More buildings have been added to my
Manchester archi-map , the latest being the Victoria Bridge near the Cathedral. All buildings have been placed in relevant timeline folders so that you can view, for example, just buildings of the C19th etc.

Cheesden Valley, UK archi- map


Cheesden Valley with all mill locations and other features courtesy of Google Earth


The Cheesden Valley is, in my opinion worthy of World Heritage Status, it is a little known valley which witnessed the early stages of the industrial revolution (more here)

If you want to immerse yourself into the English early C19th then the
Cheesden Valley archi-map is for you. Go to my Cheesden Valley blogspot and learn about the mills whilst you have the archi-map up and running. Ramp up your ELEVATION EXAGGERATION to the max (3) in 'Tools' /'Options and you will be able to fly through the valley and over the mills. Make sure you switch 'Terrain' on. I am updating each mill with a photo and data file - the latest addition being Cheesden Lumb Lower - the archaeological remains of a water powered mill dating from the C18th.

Medieval Lavenham


If the C19th is not your bag and you prefer your medieval to mills and Manchester then put your cod piece on and get on down to
Lavenham, Suffolk. Here we have a significant number of historic timber framed buildings with some archaeological and architectural features noted, including a potential archaeological site - do you know what it might be? Check out the red alert symbol on the map.

That concludes the update, more maps will be added shortly. Please make a comment if you find them useful.

Cheesden Lumb Lower



History

Cheesden Lumb Lower was one of the first mills in the valley built in or before 1786. It was water powered and originally set up as a woollen mill. As times changed it became a cotton mill. In an advert of 1809 it is listed as having a perching mill, blueing house, teaster and belonging tenters, and a stove house where sulphur dioxide fumes bleached woollen cloth for blankets. A carding engine was also introduced in this period. In 1838 the mill still had a set of stocks (fulling?) but the teaster and percher were abandoned. Spinning machinery was introduced.

Remaining Archaeology

As is visible in the photograph above, the facade remains to much of the front elevation. Photographs do exist of the full mill in Heywood Library. North of the facade there is an indentation which is possibly where the stove was situated. Remarkably, the axle to the waterwheel still survives, now embedded in overgrowth. Look out for the Dolphin carved in stone at the bottom of the front facade near to the water. Apparently a local artist did this.

Project Links

Cheesden Lumb Even Lower
Cheesden where?

Lightbox (updated regularly)

Images of Cheesden Lumb Lower

Location

You can view all of the Cheesden Valley mills on my Google Earth archi-map.
Access is from my archi-map page on my website.


Satellite image of Cheesden Lumb Lower, courtesy of Google Earth


Do you have more information?

Please post a comment if you have more information or any corrections are required

References

There are a number of references which require acknowledgement. Firstly the pioneer book by A.V. Sandiford andT.E. Ashworth called The Forgotton Valley is an important source of information and is available from the libraries at Heywood or Rochdale. For a general background Owen Ashmore's Industrial Archaeology of Lancashire is a must. There is also a good archive at Heywood Library.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Touched by the hand of God

Light over Cheesden Pasture from Four Acres Lodge by Andy Marshall

Touched by the hand of God it might be, but the communities which lived in this location 200 years ago might not have been aware of such stark beauty.

I have learnt such a lot about the people of the Cheesden Valley through the many years I have trudged up and down with camera and tripod. My first perception was of a valley full of industry in a state of perpetual lavaic flux, amidst the volcanic explosion of the industrial revolution which had its epicentre only 10 miles away in the dark and satanic murk of Manchester.
Yet, the photographic process has allowed a slow absorption of the lichen clad stone and rusted lodge pipes, which in turn has helped me recognise the intangible links between each mill and the community which built them.

This valley was no typical conglomeration of manufactories. The activitiy and culture which grew up in this valley over 200 years ago lies on the cusp of the industrial revolution, it hangs onto the large hunk of urbanisation by a sinew. It is a distant cousin, a transitional phase between the medieval workshop and the multi-disciplinary factory.

The 15 or so mills built along the full length of the valley with disparate roles such as bleaching and fulling are the conduits of a community isolated from the industrial mammon by the deep cut and thrust of the valleys of the North Pennine Moors. There is something noble about their activities: to organise and produce a loose conglomerate of structures, which in many ways complemented each other, and provided the answer to much of the cotton process from spinning to bleaching and finishing.

P. S. Barnwell sums it up intuitively in his text entitled 'Workshops, industrial production and the landscape' : "...unless production was concentrated in a single workshop or manufactory, articles had to be moved, often many times, from one workshop to another during the course of manufacture. For this to be economically sustainable required a density of businesses within a restricted area, so that the network of interdependent workshops created a kind of dispersed factory, with specialist workers working like a dispersed machine. The result was the creation of tight-knit communities with a sense of common purpose, fate and identity, living in areas dominated by the buildings, often individually undistinguished, of the local trade: the mass of such buildings often transformed the local landscape and , where they still exist, create a dominant sense of local distinctiveness" (Taken from 'The Vernacular Workshop - from craft to industry, 1400-1900' CBA 2004)

The Cheesden Valley in a nutshell.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Four Acres

Walked up to the site of Four Acres Mill today with my son Sam who is here stood on the southern rampart of the mill lodge which was built several feet above the mill to provide the pressure to drive the water wheel. The wheel pit still remains, although much filled in with stone. At the site of the exit for the water from the pit (now much covered) there is a singular hole now occupied by a fox or badger.

In the photo, behind the tree you can see the spurs of the banks of the Cheesden Brook which sidles its way down the moors.

You can view the archi-map with four acres mill highlighted here.


Saturday, January 07, 2006

Shippon at Cheesden Pasture Mill

Up to Cheesden Pasture Mill yesterday for the first time. It lies north of the Edenfield Road and you have to get over a high stile into the field to be on your way. I just about made it after falling over the stile and almost losing all my camera equipment. It was worth all the effort though, because the site still shows the remains of the mill and lodge which started its life in around 1810 and finished in the 1890's.

Now within the lumps and bumps is another vernacular curiosity. Built of concrete (I would say post war) a shippon lies to the southern end of where the mill was. I loved it - almost cathedral like in its form with its nave like arches spreading upwards to shroud the sheep in warmth and solitude. To the exterior its bitumined hide which reminds me of the upside down boat cabins on Holy Island (photo courtesy of p smithson).

You can see all the mills on my archi-map of the Cheesden Valley

Friday, January 06, 2006

Cheesden Valley Archi-Map now available

Heres a Cheesden Valley Archi-Map to check out the mills of the valley. The mills developed in rough chronological order, from north to south.

Try tilting the google earth map to see the terrains lumps and bumps (check the terrain radio button to have this work). You can boost the terrain bumps by going to Google Earth Options and increasing the elevation exaggeration to 3. This way you can fly through the valley in 3d and see the mill locations. I am updating each location with detailed information. Just the washwheel mill is ready (look for the 'i' symbol)

Washwheel Mill


History


Washwheel Mill (Lower Works at Washwheel) built in the latter half of the C19th, was used primarily as a bleachworks for the bleaching of cotton waste. It had a Lancashire Boiler (with economiser), and used water from the Cheesden Brook for the bleaching process although it seems not for powering the mill.

Remaining Archaeology

This is a compact site which is full of industrial archaeology including the remains of the stone becks used in the bleaching process which probably held around 400 gallons of scouring liquor. To the north (directly behind the mill) is the main lodge which was fed by a riveted iron pipe from a lodge to the west (across the river). The pipe is still in evidence but has fallen into the river. The supply pipe for the water used in the bleaching process is still on site also close by to the chimney. A large overgrow indent with some stone and brick surviving runs parallel to the brook - this was the location for the Lancashire Boiler and economiser.

Project Links

Cheesden Again
Gruesome Find

Lightbox (updated regularly)

Images of Washwheel Mill

Location

You can view all of the Cheesden Valley mills on my Google Earth archi-map.
Access is from my archi-map page on my website.


Satellite Image of Washwheel Mill courtesy of Google Earth


Do you have more information?

Please post a comment if you have more information or any corrections are required

References

There are a number of references which require acknowledgement. Firstly the pioneer book by A.V. Sandiford andT.E. Ashworth called The Forgotton Valley is an important source of information and is available from the libraries at Heywood or Rochdale. For a general background Owen Ashmore's Industrial Archaeology of Lancashire is a must. There is also a good archive at Heywood Library.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Deeply Vale

The above picture is of the remains of Deeply Vale Mill which is one of 15 sites in the Cheesden Valley.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Gruesome Find

Another trip into Cheesden today and found the carcass of a deer at the back of Washwheel Mill. I didn't know we had deer in the Cheesden Valley.

The light was dull and morbid today much in keeping with my gruesome find, but the day nevertheless was invigorating. I spent much time taking photo's of parts of the industrial remains of a site called Deeply Vale. There was no sun, so I took photo's of parts that the sun never reaches - like under the packhorse bridge which leads onto the damhead of the lodge.

Getting into the Cheesden Valley isn't easy. Take the Elbut Lane and you have to walk around a mile uphill and then take a steep traverse into the valley before getting close to the first mill. I like this reverential space around the valley - it keeps it special. It reminds me of the Greek and Roman classical temples which have a hierarchy of space which imbues them with mystique and spirituality. The valley is just like this and I can't wait to get back there as soon as possible.