It took until 1902 for the Midland Railway to complete their line through New Mills and open a direct route into Manchester Central.
They built the great thirteen arched viaduct across the River Goyt and the Disley Tunnel 3.5km long at great expense. Traversing New Mills provided another challenge as mills and other buildings stood in the way. The old Beehive Inn was demolished and a replacement built further down Albion Road. John Harrop's rope walk was demolished as was a small part of Brunswick Mill (now Swizzels).
This photograph shows the Albion Road Toll Bar and on the right, the Beehive Inn. In the background is the low roof of Harrop's rope walk and beyond is Brunswick Mill.
A bridge was built to carry Albion Road over the new railway and a high retaining wall supported Brunswick Mill above the adjacent tracks. The ground however was unstable and the works resulted in subsidence causing damage to Brunswick Mill. The drawing below, dated 1900, reproduced courtesy of the Midland Railway Study Centre shows the new retaining wall and the damage to the mill building.
New Mills now boasted a third railway line, all of which remain in use today. Express trains from Central to Derby, Nottingham and London raced through the town without stopping. There was a proposal to build a station on the Midland Line and this would have been on the site of Brunswick Mill. The undated newspaper cutting outlines the proposals.
This aerial photograph from Historic England shows much of New Mills including Newtown. Zooming in gives a detailed view of Brunswick Mill and the passing railway.
This extract is from the 1:2500 scale map published shortly before construction of the line. The route of the railway is marked showing where buildings had to make way for the new line.
We appreciate contributions from Tony Whittaker and Tony Bartley in preparing this article.
