Cotton on to Cheesden

Glad to announce a bit of extra recognition for the Cheesden Valley. One of my photo's of the valley was used in a recent article in the Sunday Times Home Magazine.

Cheesden Landscape

Cheesden Lumb Lower nestled in the Cheesden Landscape, winter 2005.

The Snaking Brook

Here's a stacked view of the Cheesden Brook snaking through Cheesden Pasture looking south.

Beneath the Bridge at Deeply Vale

Beneath the bridge at Deeply Vale Mill in the Cheesden Valley looking south down the Cheesden Brook near Hewyood Lancashire UK

Andy Marshall is a professional architectural photographer. Most images can be downloaded 24/7 at Alamy

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Washwheel Mill

Washwheel Mill is situated about 2/3rds of the way down the valley and was used for bleeching and dyeing. This is one of my favourite images of the mill.

Summer in the Valley

Summer is the quietest time for me in the valley - many of the archaeological remains are covered over with grass and flora and fauna, and the valley takes on a different character.

I always make a couple of trips in the summer just to check on things - but in the meantime over the next few weeks every now and again I'll be showcasing some of my favourite images from the valley, starting with this image of Cheesden Lumb Lower Mill

Andy Marshall is a professional architectural photographer. Most images can be downloaded 24/7 at Alamy

More about Andy Marshall
Contact Andy Marshall
Search all of Andy Marshall's Images

All images are copyright Andy Marshall and must not be used without prior permission.

Dolphin

Here at the base of the surviving remains of Cheesden Lumb Lower we have a carving of a Dolphin which I noticed whilst stood in the river taking a long exposure a couple of years ago. Any body know who did it?

You can view a Google Earth Map of the Cheesden Valley by going here

Crostons Gatepost

The site of Crostons Upper Mill is slowly being reclaimed by nature but significant standing archaeology remains such as this gate post which is situated next to the rubble outline of the cottages it once served.

There is a google earth archi-map of the Cheesden Valley

More images of the Crostons site

All images of the Cheesden Valley project by Andy Marshall

The Lodge at Four Acre

How about this for an archaeological profile? This must be an archaeologists dream with the full section exposed and not much digging to do!

This is an eroded section of the lodge bank at Four Acre Mill in the Cheesden Valley Heywood near Lancashire. It is adjacent to the outlet where the water would have driven the water wheel at the Mill situated a matter of yards lower down. The lodge was built before 1810 for the mill which started its life carding and spinning wool. Remains still exist of the mill amounting to a low rubble wall and much scattered debris. A hole which I think might come from the tail race in the bank below is taken up by a fox or badger.

In the photo above you can see the full outline of the lodge and the indentation where water would have collected to power the waterwheel.

The valley is full of the signs of mans endeavours to utilise the landscape to help him prosper. It was only recently that I noticed a whole range of ridge and furrow around the area known as Tom Hill.

I am currently carrying out a project to photograph the Cheesden Valley and it has its own separate blog.

There is a Google Earth map of the valley which I have created. You can download it at my archi-maps page here.

Below the bridge at Crostons

This was the scene a week ago or two, below the bridge (more like a conduit) at the site of Crostons Upper Mill in the Cheesden Valley Heywood Lancashire UK

The Lodge at Mr John's

Here are the remains of the lodge used to drive the mill at Cheesden Lumb Higher (affectionately known by contemporaries as Mr John's). The lodge isn't so easy to see during the summer and the snow helps add a little relief to see the contours. It lies empty now, but I imagine it would be treacherous to try and walk into the centre. In the south east corner lumps and bumps reveal the site of the mill. Directly to the south a wall stands with holes inserted at regular intervals where the rafters would have been lodged to support the floor.

Lumps and Bumps

A light dusting of snow over the North Pennine Moors (near Heywood Lancashire UK) revealed extensive marks which look like ridge and furrow. What date they are from is difficult to say and whether they have been ploughed or produced for drainage is also difficult to say. I have looked on Google Earth and several field systems of ridge and furrow are visible crashing into each other at various angles to the south of Tom Hill between Cheesden Pasture and Cheesden Fold. Some respect the current field boundaries and some do not. Below are some pics I took on Saturday.

Below is a picture of Tom Hill which is covered in ridge and furrow. Ridge and furrow to the west are cut into by Victorian ventilation shafts showing that they pre-date this period. There is an unusual irregularity as to their positioning and pattern.

All over the area there are derelict farms and barns - the footprints now only survive. It would be fascinating to find out about the history of this area and how the landscape has developed. I'm sure it would add to an area which is poorly documented.

Interestingly, on the Google Earth map there is just visible beneath the pattern of one furrowed field a series of rectangular marks (enclosure?) which possibly predate the ridge and furrows themselves. They lie on the south slope of Tom Hill. I have marked the area on my google earth archi-map (Cheesden Valley) and you can see them for yourself if you download the map here.

Tom Hill from the South West

Cheesden Lumb Even Lower

I went out the site of Cheesden Lumb Lower today because it had snowed the night previously and it helps define much of the archaeology.

Recently I have noticed a deterioration of the site which seems to have been made worse by a surge of water or flooding of some kind. Where the axle to the waterwheel was - we now have huge sandstone rocks and boulders. To the front of the mill the earth has caved in leaving a large circular chasm. The foundations beneath the doorway have been revealed and I can't help feeling that it wont be long before the facade collapses.

Cheesden Pasture Ridge and Furrow

On Monday I talked about how our landscape has been changed by man over thousands of years; and noted that during a walk on Cheesden Pasture near Heywood Lancs UK that along the side of one of the ridges there magically appeared a series of ridge and furrow.

This was whilst the sun was setting and they disappeared after a few minutes. They're completely invisible to the eye most of the time. Anyway I took a hurried and shaky hip shot with the zoom lens and here they are - click the pic for larger view.

The Making of the English Landscape

Would it be sad to say that one of my 'comfort' books is 'The Making of the English Landscape' by W G Hoskins. I think I read in the flyer that one critic said that it was rare that a single book comes along and heightens your consciousness of your surroundings. That's why every now and then I have to dip back into it to bring me back to that ethereal state of awareness - or else I'm in danger of being numbed by the effects of today's busy and stressful lifestyle.

I think the book was originally written in the 1950's but it is still revolutionary in its outlook - with its main tenet that even the wildest moors of Britain have been shaped by the hand of man. Even more remarkable is the fact that with a little insight you can still see the marks that our ancestors left over 10,000 years ago.

Boundaries are one of the most lasting features in our landscape, as are some field systems.

The photo above of Cheesden Pasture in Heywood Lancs shows a largely rural scene which most would expect to be completely natural. But we have a field boundary of stone; a cultivated pasture to the right; a tree (which is at the base of the ruins of a house and probably planted by man); just off photo, some larger humps and bumps were created in the late C18th and early C19th when water was diverted to a lodge to run a water powered mill. On the side of the hill in the background there survives a series of ridge and furrows which are only visible when the sun is low (from what period I don't have a clue). The main ridge in the photo leads to a hill which has had human activity for thousands of years with stone age flints being found (possibly a place of ritual) Nearby across the Edenfield Road we have a bronze age burial site which lifts the field boundary aloft like the dip of a roller coaster. Only a matter of yards away the head of a bronze age axe was found during excavations for a reservoir.

Indeed it wouldn't surprise me to find out that this area of North Pennine Moors was teaming with life several thousand years ago and that the location of my home town would have been no more than a clearing swamped and surrounded by trees.

The Brook at Deeply Vale

Remarkable it is to see the Brook at Deeply Vale at full pelt. Swollen with fall off from the North Pennine Moors, it rattles its way along the Deeply Vale section like a bob sleigh. For over 200 metres the river has been laid with beautifully hewn sandstone setts and bordered with an imposing 2m high dry stone wall. It must have been a remarkable enterprise - no doubt the builders would have had to damn the river and re-direct it during construction.

I was brave and climbed into the river to take a few photographs and walked its full length to the top where the remains of a stone jamb to hold a sluice gate leans over tentatively.

I have produced a Google Earth archi-map of Cheesden where you can view the location of the Deeply Vale Mill and Brook which flows past.

Cheesden Pasture Mill

History

Built around 1810 for carding and spinning wool. The mill was powered by water from the large triangular lodge situated several feet above the mill. It converted to cotton spinning in the late 1830's whereafter the factory was enlarged to incorporate several thousand spindles. Sandiford and Asworth note 3 to 4000 spindles for spinning cotton waste yarns, 3 pairs of mules for spinning raw cotton and 5 reeling frames for winding the spun yarn into hanks in preparation for the dyer. In addition 30 looms made cloth from the spun yarn.

Here we can witness in one mill the transition from industrial unit focusing on producing wool for the outworker, to multi-faceted industrial unit focusing on producing cloth in a variety of forms and ranges - reeling in the majority of processes under one roof.

During the peak of its production a row of cottages were built to house workers. Later a steam engine was incorporated into the factory which helped produce gas to light the mill. A school room was also incorporated indicating the important role of the mill in the northern outback, in social matters during this time.

Remaining Archaeology

Little remains of the mill (although more than I expected). The plan form can still be made out (if one consults Sandiford and Ashworths drawings) against the hillside. The biggest remaining impact of the mill is on the landscape, with the huge earth banks of the lodge rising high above a rubble stone revetement. It remains empty, and was filled by the numerous springs in the area, and not the brook itelf. An opening in the south west corner indicates where the waterwheel must have been. Also, a large oval indentation is present to the north which may have housed a boiler or gas tank of some description. Whilst I was up there I found the remains of a china tea-cup (surely not from the mill or outworkers buildings?). Iron pipes protrude from behind a stone revetment or wall tucked up against the lodge. Beyond the great oval indentation the stone remains of a square building survive. To the east of the lodge, humps and bumps and some slight standing walls indicate the location of the row of houses. Of interest to me are the remains of a Shippon which looks suspiciously like a ww2 air raid shelter.

Project Links

Touched by the hand of God
Shippon at Cheesden Pasture Mill

Lightbox (updated regularly)

Images of Cheesden Pasture 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 Cheesden Pasture 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 and T.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.

Farmstead

The farms around the North Pennine Moors in the north of England are almost prairie like and the vast haunch of of moss gnarled sandstone coal measures adds an epic quality to the landscape.

I was up there last Sunday to witness this spectacular sunset and take my wife and daughter for a walk up to a small hamlet called Fecit via the Cheesden Pasture; where I told them stories of the ardent activities of the mill operatives who traversed the stark setting every morning to sit at the loom and stare out of the window at the farm on the horizon silhouetted against the ochre sky.

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.

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.

Cheesden Valley Google Earth Archi-Map
All of my images of the Cheesden Valley

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.

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

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.

Deeply Vale

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

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.