Manager 1900-1911 - Edward Seynor Stone.
History [more to come]
Ingersley Vale and its mills have a long and illustrious history. There were once three mills in the vale, a waulk mill (wool processing), Ingersley Vale, sometimes known as Clough Mill, and Rainow Mill, lost to a fire in 1907 and with J. McNulty's glass works on the site today.
Ingersley Vale Mill has been altered many times over the centuries. The present structure carries a date stone of 1809. When originally built in 1790 there was a row of cottages and the mill manager's house located along the valley floor upstream of the mill. George Longden, the well informed local historian, believes that there was an apprentices house on the site, as there still is at Style. In the 19th century the cottages and house were removed and additional mill buildings erected over the river upstream of the main mill. In the 20th century these were altered and extended. The mill is located at the narrowest point in the valley. All these mills were located here because of the availability of water to drive their waterwheels and mill machinery.
Ingersley mill was water powered until the 1950s. In the early 1800s the power of the river was increased by the construction of Clough pool and the waterfall which stored up enough water to drive the wheel at maximum power throughout the day. Overnight the reserves in the pool where restored while the mill was closed. The water wheel directly powered the machinery until 1895 after which the wheel drove a dynamo and the machinery was powered by electric motors, providing much greater flexibility in the layout and types of machinery.
Originally there were two water wheels, one above the other, designed to use the water twice. When more power was required the wheel house was enlarged to what we see now and a single 56 foot diameter by 9 foot wide wheel was installed. The wheel at Ingersley Mill is famous for the fact that it was, at 56 feet in diameter, the largest in England, and only beaten in Britain by the wheel at Laxey in the Isle of Man. This was undoubtedly one of the most powerful water wheels installed anywhere. Regrettably, once the mill was connected to the mains, and ceased to generate its own electricity, the wheel was removed and scrapped.
The leat supplying water from the pool to the wheel is still in place and contains a 2ft 6inch diameter cast iron pipe to carry the water along the hillside. the aqueduct which took the water across the road to the wheel house is still in place.
Graham Plant, who lives in Kerridge, remembers that his uncle worked at the mill in the early 20th century. The wheel was driving what were known as 'beetles'. These were tilt hammers that pounded the cloth in a row of containers which also contained a liquid (I haven't yet identified what purpose in the dying and bleaching process this served!). Graham recalls that in his young days the building used today by J. McNulty for the glass works was a cloth store and this was connected to Ingersley Mill by a continuous overhead wire on pulleys and used to convey the rolls of cloth from the store to the mill.
The present proposals include the use of water to generate electricity. However, there are a couple of changes that will have reduced the power of the river since the 19th century - firstly the construction of Lamaload reservoir which is used to store water from the river and use it for our public water supply, and, secondly, the silting up of Clough pool so that it is in effect just a river running through to the waterfall.
Site A, the open ground immediately behind Rainow Mill (the glass works), was once a mill pond providing water to Rainow Mill's water wheel. The pond was filled in decades ago, the only relic being the waterfall between Rainow Mill and the open ground.
More recent history has been chequered with a succession of companies in the cloth industry including dyers and bleachers. A fire in 1999 destroyed the roof and floors of the original mill building. The last occupants of the site moved out a few years later and the whole site has descended into dereliction since.
[pictures to come]
Letter from A. J. King & Co. Ltd. dated 26:IX:1912 probably to Miss Mellor's solicitor or land agent concerning King's possible purchase of land and buildings from the Mellor estate at Rainow.
The full text reads (with a few unreadable words) ...
Dear Sir
Hough Hole Estate
I am obliged by yours of 23rd Inst. with particulars of rentals &c.
I have this morning had an interview with the managing directors of Bleachers x---------x Ld.
I am sorry to say that I find that the insistance for an immediate p-----e g--e operates - thus it may be x----x at any time -
They propose therefore that in sh---x x x the lease on the terms suggested by Miss Mellor to carry out the wishes of the sons as to x----x of p---x xx. x---x that you should ask for the insertion of a clause giving us the option to purchase at any time during the continuance of the lease - at the price of £5000 for the property including the 2 extra fields (15 1/2 acres)
In view of the Rentals & the inaccessible position of the property by road they think this is a liberal offer.
x----x of x--x & you will x-----x your clients in this matter & let me know.
Yours faithfully
Alfred J. King.
A. x. Bullock
