Bollington started its industrial development for no other reason than the fact that its rivers, particularly the River Dean, were sufficient to provide power to drive mills. In the 18th and 19th centuries this was done by harnessing the river water first in mill ponds and then by releasing that water to flow over/under water wheels. The mills were spaced out along the valley so that the same water could be used several times during its flow through the town. The most upstream mill was at Ginclough, higher Rainow, on a tributary of the Dean; it is there to this day and can be seen from the Rainow/Whaley Bridge road. Downstream there were further mills at Rainow, then the Waulk Mill at the top end of Ingersley Vale (nothing remains of this), Ingersley Clough Mill (now derelict but it had the largest water wheel in mainland Britain), Rainow Mill (no trace remains; located where McNulty's glass works is today), Higher or Upper Mills (where Dyers Close is today), Lower Mills (Tullis Russell today), Waterhouse Mill (Kay Metzeler today), Bollington Corn Mill (no trace remains; located where Riverside Close is today) and finally Lowerhouse Mill.
The observant will notice that the mills get bigger as we move downstream. This is because the river is increasing in size, with small streams and brooks joining along the way, so increasing the energy capacity of the river. The next mill that I am aware of is beyond the point where the Dean joins the Bollin and together drive the huge mill at Styal.
At every one of the Bollington locations there remains a drop in the river bed, a waterfall or weir. Some of these were enhanced by mankind to make a more abrupt step in the river bed which made its harnessing easier. This change of level is what made the river powerful - the higher the drop the more power that could be extracted from a given quantity of water. These weirs remain in place today and the steps could still be used to gather the energy of falling water.
These differences in height could be significantly increased by storing the water in a mill pond and taking it via a leat along the hillside to the mill lower down the valley. The most obvious example of this is Ingersley Clough mill where the pond is above the waterfall at the end of Ingersley Vale and the leat follows the hillside to the mill some 300m away. By then the river has fallen over 50 feet and so they were able to install an overshot and fully enclosed water wheel (the most efficient type) of some 54 feet in diameter, the largest in mainland Britain. The only larger one is at Laxey in the Isle of Man, and a very popular tourist feature. Our own big wheel was broken up for scrap 40 years ago. There are proposals to develop the ruin of the mill for housing and the plans include harnessing the water power using modern water powered electricity generators.
Archimedean Screw
An alternative method of turning water power into electricity is the use of the Archimedean screw, or rather the reverse Archimedean screw - the original was for lifting water; this method extracts energy by lowering the water past a weir. Rather than describe it in detail here, have a look at what they are doing in New Mills, only eight miles from Bollington.
New Mills: Torrs hydro-electric scheme
, Blog, Western Renewable Energy
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