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Located in the heart of the Calder Valley, Sowerby Bridge is a
town with a contrasting mixture of scenery old and new, rural and
urban. On the great road from Chester to York, the bridging-point
of the calder was a major landmark.By around 1720, cloth making
was well established, with local cloths going to markets in
Europe and Asia. Fulling Mills for fluffing out the texture of
wool cloth was established by the end of the middle ages, and by
the middle of the eighteenth century there were more than a dozen
mill wheels at work.The cross pennine canal route was finished in
1804 with the joining of the Rochdale and Calder and Hebble
Canals. With greatly improved canal capacity the valley town
found markets and sources of raw materials on a growing scale.
Fulling Mills, cornmills and weavers workshops were established
by Tudor times.
About the time of 1770, a period of expansion took place in the heart
of the town with the building of Longbottoms Mill. It contained
hand operated machines and brought factory working a step closer
by bringing operatives together, close to roads and canals.
Richard Arkwright was building his water-powered mill in
Derbyshire at that time, and the water-frames which spun cotton
would soon have its equivelents in West Yorkshire. Greenups Mill,
Located near to Longbottoms Mill, Symbolises both the story and
the archaeology which illustrates it.Having been established as a
textile-working site for over 400 years when it ceased
working-still water driven-in 1942. Four massive wheels located
in a chamber under the mill, brought the river calder to work. 4
Quarter mile long goits fed 5 million gallons of water an hour to
the wheels, and powered 50 pairs of broadcloth looms, spinning
and warping and other machines. In 1790 with 2 wheels turning
almost all the flow of the Calder was diverted through the goits
to run the wheels. The wheels stopped in 1942, Today Longbottoms
Mill has been long gone, Greenups , Winton and Charlton Mills
remain and have been given a new lease of life, with conversion
into Riverside Apartments.
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