Like many Lancashire towns, Preston once had dozens of cotton mills, but very few have survived. There are of course a couple of significant exceptions, with the refurbished Hesketh Mill on New Hall Lane being something of a landmark as you approach the city centre, and the gigantic Tulketh Mill – complete with chimney – acting as a similar talisman on Blackpool road. Beyond that, there are very few compared with the likes of Bolton, Oldham or Burnley.

Travel a few miles to the east and sat next to the M6 is Higher Walton, a small village with a gigantic mill. Intriguingly, when compared to aerial photos from the 1950’s it appears to be externally almost complete – if somewhat decayed – with one of the single storey sheds truncated slightly and a couple of modern units added more recently.

The mill is an old one, built in 1860 or so. There’s not much information about the place online or in my Cotton Mills of Preston book, but there is some good information here.

The aerial photographs are titled ‘Preston Tyre Fabric Manufacturing Co’ and were taken in 1953, but beyond that I don’t know much about the later history of the place.