Water For The Printworks

 Furness Vale Printworks once had several mill ponds fed by a mill lade from the River Goyt. These appear in a number of our archive photographs but as several have now been filled, it is not easy to identify them.

Peter Gorry, who is familiar with the locality has been comparing these pictures with historic maps and these are his findings.

 Your blogspot: Thursday, 3 January 2013 Furness Vale Printworks has some great photos. The 5th one has a caption:

"The mill lodges viewed from station road. These have long since been filled in and little sign remains of them."

 I’m certain this is actually the view from the back gardens of Lakeview cottages (old Furness Row, adjacent to the canal). Direction shown on 1898 map below. The house at the very left of the picture is 1 Bank View (current owners of the industrial park). You can see it clearly in picture 3 in the same set (woman on Bank view, and the middle millpond to her right. The very far millponds are no longer there (now Trident Foam) but the two closest ones are in the grounds of Lakeview House. Although the nearest pond has been substantially filled in the middle one is still complete and can be seen as you drive down Calico lane. Both 1 and 3 Bank View look directly along its length.

View of the Printworks

 In the background of this photograph are the buildings of Furness Vale Printworks. This view is from the area of Lodge Farm which is just off of Station Road.  Wew can see one of the  mill lodges with asluice to control the flow of water. The man on the right appears to be operating a pump worked by a lever. In the foreground are a number of side tipper trucks and a section of narrow gauge contractors railway.  These were often employed on construction sites and could be quickly laid or re-located. It is not clear what work is being carried out  but it looks as if one of the ponds has been drained.
The photograph is undated.

Our thanks to New Mills Local History Society for allowing us to use this photograph.

Furness Vale Printworks

Our new publication "The Life and Times of Furness Vale Printworks 1794 to 1925 by Chris Bond is now available from the History Society and from the village Post Office, price £5.  There is also a Kindle edition, price £1.96 available from Amazon  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ASBP2BI

Although the buildings remain, many in their original form, the Printworks is now an industrial estate. These photographs show how it once looked.

The entrance to the Printworks is seen here looking down Calico Lane

A view of the Printworks from Marsh Lane. Beyond the mill complex can be seen the cottages of Furness Row and in the background, beyond the canal and railway is Buxton Road.

This scene is little changed. This is looking down from the canal. The lake on the right.

The weir in the River Goyt. The leat or goit in the foreground supplied water to the mill lodges. This channel can still be seen on the south eastern side of Station Road but only fills with water in rainy weather.

 

The mill lodges viewed from Station Road. These have long since been filled in and little sign remains of them.

 This was probably the boiler house yard.

A works outing

Cleaning out the lodges

Furness Lodge, now demolished stood between the canal and Calico Lane, where the houses of Furness Lodge Close are now situated. This had been the home of former mill owner, Mr Saxby and always remained part of the Printworks estate