page_title: Cheesden Valley
section_title: Mills
hierarchical_section_title: Cheesden Valley / Mills
caption_attribution_description: English: Cheesden Lumb Mill, Lancashire This former woollen mill was built in 1786, just below the confluence of Cheesden Brook and Kilgate Brook. At first it was a fulling mill, but it later extended its activities to include carding, bleaching and dyeing. However it later changed to spinning cotton waste, and ended up producing lamp wicks. The mill closed around 1898 and was abandoned. According to my father the roof still remained in about 1920, but it is seen here in 1952. However, since that time, much of what is seen here has disappeared - probably stone thieves are to blame for this.
context_page_description: The Cheesden Valley is a valley in the Heywood area of Greater Manchester, England. It runs on a north-south alignment between Bury and Rochdale in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. Cheesden Brook runs through the valley, joining with Naden Brook to eventually run into the River Roch near Heywood. During the industrial age the valley became a centre of cotton production dependent on running water. The valley is now a conservation area.
context_section_description: Of the many mills in Lancashire the first mill in the valley was probably erected at Kershaw Bridge in 1780 by Thomas Allanson.  It was a fustian mill and may have used Arkwright water frames.
  John Haworth's Four-Acre Mill was high on the moors above Cheesden and was powered by a 36-foot (11 m) waterwheel.  Haworth, who diverted the waters of a tributary stream to turn his wheel, later built a huge lodge to provide a consistent head of water for himself and other millowners - until then, they had been at the whim of the weather, laying off workers during dry spells and calling them in at all hours when the valley flooded.
  A John Kay (not to be confused with the John Kay who invented the flying shuttle) built Cheesden Valley's Lumb Mill in 1786, as a fulling mill, turning woollens into felted materials.
  Cheesden Brook provided power for at least 15 mills and employment for 2,000 people.  Communities grew up in what had once been a desolate region.
  These moorland mills held their own for more than half a century against their big-town rivals, many finding a niche for themselves, as mainline competition increased, by developing as cotton-waste spinners.  This involved recycling the inner core of yarn cops, which had been stiffened in manufacture by the application of starch paste to avoid the need for separate wooden bobbins.  During the cotton famine caused by the American Civil War these waste mills actually experienced a boom.
  By the 1870s the mills were struggling to compete against the steam-powered economics of their massive rivals in the nearby towns and, before the turn of the century, they had all but vanished.  Many of the former mills, lodges and a solitary chimney, along with other industrial workings such as Weirs and Dykes, are still evident today.
caption: Cheesden Lumb Mill in 1952.
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