On a walk round Bacup, I noticed these chimneys in a valley, so I went for a closer look. I know of a few isolated chimney’s around the north west as they were often placed away from the mill on a hillside to increase the draught, but these were literally off the beaten track.

There’s virtually nothing to be found out about them on the internet, and I only found the name of the mill on the 1908 OS 6 inch map which indicates that even then it was in ruins. But these rural mills, often powered initially by waterwheels, fell into decline in the late 1800’s as steam power took over which allowed much larger mills to be built, normally in more urban areas where there was ready access to a workforce, railways and coal. Not far away is Cheesden Lumb Mill (which I write about a few weeks ago) and that closed at a similar time.

So there you go, not much to say about these, just a bit of a rural curiosity. If you have any information about them, please let me know!