While Burnley was known as a textiles town, the decline in that industry in the mid 20th century left a great deal of empty mills, and a number of these were taken over by the expanding aerospace industry. The catalyst for this was WW2 and with Burnley’s relatively remote location and skilled workforce, Lucas industries and others opened shadow factories there. In fact Lucas Aerospace was one of the towns largest employers in the post war period, but it’s sites were gradually sold off to other companies. When I worked in one of these in the late 90’s, Wood Top Mill was occupied by a company making engine components (AIT, later Smiths Aerospace and several others). They later moved to a new factory just down the road and Wood Top Mill was demolished.
Well, mostly demolished. It was a fairly large site, with a typical three storey structure fronting the road and a large weaving shed behind. The Google Earth satellite shows a number of newer buildings behind with an intriguing array of chimneys – not entirely sure what process was performed in there, maybe a large autoclave or some form of metal treatments. But for reasons that are unclear, a small section of the mill building to the front, as well as the chimney, were left standing.
The view from the rear is a bleak wasteland, with fifteen years of undergrowth and fly tipping. I’m quite surprised the land hasn’t been sold for ‘much-needed’ affordable housing, but maybe the area it sits in is too much of a hard sell – who knows.
Mechanical Landscapes 
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