Industrial Zone

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"I" is for "Industrial Zone" and today's photo shows part of the industrial area that stretches along Ashton's southern fringe.

In case any followers of this blog have been getting the impression that Ashton is an idyllic location where the sun always shines and everything is green grass, heather moorlands, historic buildings and delightful flower beds, then I'm sorry to disillusion you, but Ashton has its less pretty industrial areas, like most places.

Although Ashton was originally a small market town for the surrounding rural areas, it grew into a large town with the development of coal mining and the cotton spinning industry in the area, with most of the mills being concentrated along the southern edge of the town, alongside the canal and river.

Most of Ashton's cotton mills have now gone but those that remain have been converted to other uses. The mill on the left is Oxford Street Mill, which was formerly called Duncan Mill and built in 1860. It is now home to Hawke International, manufacturers of such things as cable glands.

In the distance is the large Oxford Mills complex dating from 1845. The canal is the Ashton Canal that runs to Manchester, built in 1792.

See Birds Eye View of this location, which shows very well th eband of industry that follows the canal.

"Industrial Zone" is a contribution to ABC Wednesday. For more "I" posts from around the world please follow this link.

Mossley on Monday: Mind the Steps!

A few weeks ago we saw a photo of a building known as "The Old School House". It was called that because the Baguley School was once situated in part of the building. But when it was built in the 1780s, there were four dwellings on the two lower floors and a large weaving room occupying the entire top floor.

I mentioned that this weaving room was accessed by steps at the back of the building, and here are those steps! This is a rear view of that building. I don't know whether there was originally some sort of handrail. Other similar weavers' cottages in the Pennines don't have handrails, but the external steps usually run up alongside a wall rather than at right angles! They certainly didn't have the same hang-ups about Health and Safety in the eighteenth century!

This is a significant building in Mossley's heritage as it reflects the time when the production of woollen cloth was an important cottage industry in the area.

See Google Aerial View of this location.
See LiveSearch Birds Eye View of this location.

Mills and Hills

This is an almost timeless picture of northern mills with a background of northern hills and a foreground of cobbles! However, the observant viewer will notice a few clues that this is a recent photo, such as the pole-mounted CCTV camera and the palisade fencing.

This photograph shows a different view of Whiteland Mill, seen here last week. It is seen looking down the steps from the railway bridge at the end of Granville Street, Cockbrook.

Behind Whitelands Mill is Stamford Mill, just across the border in Stalybridge.

A Google aerial view of this location can be seen here.

Rocher Vale

Rocher Vale, at the northern extremity of Ashton under Lyne, is a rugged part of the valley of the River Medlock, upstream from Park Bridge.

This was the location of Rocher Vale Colliery and the building in the photo is what is left of the Engine House, which housed a steam engine to pump water out of the mine.

National Gas Engine Company

The National Gas Engine Company was opened in 1890 by Henry M. Bickerton at Wellington Works in Ashton. His engines ran on town gas and were used in cotton mills and other factories.

Bickerton had previously been involved with the Mirrlees-Bickerton & Day company, which had built the Mirrlees diesel engine. The National Gas Engine Company became the National Gas and Oil Engine Company in 1932. It was taken over by the successors of Mirrlees-Bickerton & Day and in 1966 the company changed its name to Mirrlees National. In 1977 it became Mirrlees-Blackstone, part of Hawker Siddeley, finally losing the "National" label.

The buildings are now rented out for warehousing and light industrial use.

The photo shows the back of the works, seen from across the railway, from the rear of the Hollywood Bowl, seen in yesterday's photo. On the walls, the original lettering "National Gas Engine Company" has, at some stage, been overwritten with "Mirrlees National".

More about National engines can be read here.