Mechanical Landscapes

Tag: Textile Mill

  • #463 – English Fine Cottons – a tour of Tower Mill

    #463 – English Fine Cottons – a tour of Tower Mill

    If, on the off-chance you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might recall me mentioning on a number of occasions that the only things made in Manchester these days are cornflakes and Coronation Street. I’m only half joking here – large scale manufacturing has been decimated while new industries such as media have prospered.…

  • #459 – Bailey Mill Revisited

    #459 – Bailey Mill Revisited

    In the summer of 2007 I was on a bit of an exploration rampage, visiting over a dozen sites in a few months. One of my favourites was Bailey Mill in Delph. I’d been tipped off that the metal thieves had forced their way in and were just loading up their highly chromed Transits with copper…

  • #456 – Mutual Mills

    #456 – Mutual Mills

    In 1965, Mutual Mills had more than 1,000 people on the payroll and, as well as its textiles operation, had its own Adelaide Engineering division on site (who are still active on site as a sub-contract machining operation). In the 1970s and early 1980s, Heywood’s textile mills were closing down at a rapid rate, blaming…

  • #455 – Vernon Carus Revisited

    #455 – Vernon Carus Revisited

    I visited Vernon Carus’ old Penwortham Mills site back in 2007, not long after the site had closed and work transferred to a new factory round the corner from my house in Chorley. At the time, there was a full time security guard on site who kindly let me wander round for a couple of…

  • #454 – Lambert Howarth Mill Demolition

    I’d read that this mill was being demolished, but hadn’t been able to get over to see it, until demolition was pretty much complete. This is probably the last bit of the Weavers Triangle to be redeveloped, and had been empty since Lambert Howarth closed in 2005 after the owners Lambert Howarth lost a contract with M&S.…

  • #453 – Colne Mills

    North Valley Road through Colne used to be lined with several sister mills to the Smith & Nephew Brierfield Mills, but all have been demolished and replaced with shiny new supermarkets and car dealerships which gives a veneer of modernity to impress people passing through. But away from this facade is another typical East Lancashire…

  • #452 – Rossendale Mills – The Lancashire Sock Company

    Not too long ago, there were many little mills, bleachers and dyers in the valleys of northern England. The past 20 years has seen them disappear or redeveloped into apartments, as property prices increase and gentrified semi-rural living has become more popular. The valleys of Rossendale though are strangely untouched in this regard, with many…

  • #451 – Rossendale Mills – The Lancashire Sock Company

    #451 – Rossendale Mills – The Lancashire Sock Company

    I was comforted to discover that a company called The Lancashire Sock Manufacturing Company exist in a mill in Bacup. I’m not saying this in a patronising, sneering kind of way – I’m always pleased to discover traditional, long established manufacturing companies in old mills. There’s also the no-nonsense ‘does what it says on the tin’…

  • #441 – Brierfield Mill Part 8 – The Shopfloor

    #441 – Brierfield Mill Part 8 – The Shopfloor

    I’ve saved the shopfloor to last as, well, there wasn’t much of interest to shoot. 380000 square feet of basically f*** all and pigeons. The mill had been methodically stripped of everything. But as a photographer, that’s fine as it forces me to look beyond the empty space and try harder to see things. It…

  • #440 – Brierfield Mill Part 7 – Doors and (more) Windows

    #440 – Brierfield Mill Part 7 – Doors and (more) Windows

    Like all big mills, Brierfield has lots of windows. Hundreds of them. So here’s a few more, plus a door. Weaving shed floor. This was a more modern portal framed building roof built onto an older weaving shed, giving the place substantially more volume. This wall runs alongside the Leeds Liverpool Canal affording some lovely…

  • #439 – Brierfield Mill Part 6 – The Clock Tower

    #439 – Brierfield Mill Part 6 – The Clock Tower

    The clock tower is an interesting focal point from a photographic perspective. However on closer inspection it doesn’t look quite right. Site Supervisor Paul worked in the mill for a large part of his career and is of the opinion that not only is it a somewhat later addition, but that the design was actually…

  • #438 – Brierfield Mill Part 5 – The Clock

    #438 – Brierfield Mill Part 5 – The Clock

    One of the most interesting (and inaccessible) remains in the mill is the clock. It is electro-mechanical (electricity winds it up, effectively) and a lovely thing to behold. And to top things it off, it rings a large bell, which was inaccessible to a large fellow like myself. Carved into the wood supports for the…

  • #437 – Brierfield Mill Part 4 – Reception

    #437 – Brierfield Mill Part 4 – Reception

    The timber lined reception had been untouched by the demolition crew that had cleared out the admin building (the entire site is listed so no buildings are getting pulled down). It’s symmetry appealed to me so I made the most of it. Unfortunately all the offices had been stripped and the internal walls reduced to…

  • #436 – Brierfield Mill Part 3 – North Light Windows

    #436 – Brierfield Mill Part 3 – North Light Windows

    If you’ve seen my recent blog posts on the Rossendale mills, then this will look quite reminiscent of some of those. I’m not sure why I’ve developed a fascination for northlight windows, it’s probably just a passing whimsy, but in the right light they can look great. Unfortunately the winter sun was well off to…

  • #434 – Brierfield Mill Part 1 – An Introduction

    #434 – Brierfield Mill Part 1 – An Introduction

    The M65 motorway was opened in sections between 1981 and 1988, and formed a link between Blackburn and Burnley, two old mill towns in terminal decline. So much so that it was nicknamed ‘the motorway from nowhere, to nowhere’. Maybe the planners simply had their map upside down, but the rest of the motorway i.e.…

  • #433 – The last days of Sunnyside Mills, Bolton

    #433 – The last days of Sunnyside Mills, Bolton

    I happened on this article last week and decided to take some time to get a few photographs of this landmark mill tower before it disappeared. I got there just in time. Demolition contractors were on site and much of the rest of the mill had already gone. It’s a difficult place to photograph as…

  • #432 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 5

    #432 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 5

    I mentioned in my previous post about the east Lancashire mill towns being located in valleys or on hillsides. In some respects, it’s similar to the coal mines in the Welsh valleys – although in this instance it is geography rather than geology that dictated this. The textile industries initial growth was powered by water…

  • #431 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 4

    #431 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 4

    A slightly different perspective to the first one I posted in this series, but all 4 were taken within 20 feet of each other on the same stretch of pavement, albeit using either a 14mm, 18mm or a 35mm lens on my Fuji XT-10. It perhaps needs a little more ‘breathing space’ on either side…

  • #430 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 3

    Saw tooth north light roofs are ubiquitous on textile mill weaving sheds, and can sometimes be found atop the multi storey spinning mills as well. It’s unusual to be able to look down on one from the ground though, but the local topography was on my side here. I’ve never really had the chance to…

  • #428 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 2

    Haslingden. Someone once told me that there are only two types of weather in the East Lancashire town of Darwen – rain, or about to rain. In fairness, this is true of most of the East Lancashire mill towns, stuck in their little valleys or clung to hillsides. From a monochrome photographers perspective this is…

  • #427 – Rossendale Mills – Albert Mill, Haslingden 1

    Going east from the sun-drenched lowlands of Chorley where I reside, the landscape starts to quickly get hilly, and within the many valleys of the West Pennine Moors are numerous former mill towns. Haslingden is one although there aren’t many mills left here. Albert Mill and its characteristic north light windows are almost a landscape…