More information : SD 77812151) Higher Mill (Fulling & Finishing) (NAT). (1)
(SD 777217) Higher Mill, a wool finishing mill, built by the Turners circa 1789. The water wheel installed about 1830, survives at the east end though it stopped working in 1954. (2)
(SD 77812151). Museum (NAT). (4)
(SD 77812151). Higher Mill. A water powered fulling mill, with 3
associated reservoirs to provide water storage for power generation and processing. It is thought that the wheel was installed circa 1847 when a branch of the East Lancashire Railway was constructed running through the eastern side of Higher Mill, on a 14 arch viaduct. The wheel, situated inside the building, is circa 18ft in diameter, carrying 50 buckets each 9ft wide. Now fully restored. (5)
Cotton spinning mill and attached warehouse originally early C19, rebuilt 1859-60 following fire; now museum. Sandstone rubble, slate roof. Rectangular spinning block 14 bays long with 3-span roof, 3 storeys; warehouse continuing at east end 7 bays and 3 storeys to slightly lower level. All windows segmental-headed, with glazing bars, square with 9 panes at ground floor (except at right end which are now altered as doors), rectangular with 12 panes on the floors above; warehouse has 3 vertically-aligned loading doors to the 4th bay, a basket-arched wagon tunnel to the right, and segmental- headed 9-panes window. Interior: iron columns supporting wooden beams; ground floor altered, 1st floor restored as spinning room equipped inter alia with working mules.
Listed separately (1072812) the chimney of Whitaker’s Mill can be seen on a nearby hilltop. The chimney is connected by a flue that runs over the river, under the road and up the hillside. It is located there because it was far cheaper and more effective to build the chimney away from the mill on the hilltop, where the air currents could more easily carry the smoke away, rather than building a very tall chimney next to the mill in the bottom of the valley.
Chimney to underground flue from cotton mill, c.1860. Octagonal sandstone chimney rising from slope of hillside overlooking the mill. (6)
Higher Mill Textile Museum, Holcombe Road. Museum of textile machinery, based on restored mill complex with spinning mill and fulling mill, fulling stocks and water wheel. (7)
SD 778 215. Higher Mill Museum, Helmshore. Scheduled UDS number 1072811. (8)
Museum of the Lancashire textile industry UDS number 1163545 Helmshore Mills textile museum comprises the Higher Mill built by the Turner family in 1789 and Whitaker’s Mill built 1820s, although a considerable part of Whitaker's Mill was destroyed in a fire in 1857, it was rebuilt shortly afterwards and continued in operation until 1978, at which point it was under the ownership of L. Whitaker & Sons. (9)
Higher Mill is a blanket finishing mill, built in 1789 of stone with stone slates and driven by a waterwheel. It was built by the Turners as a woollen fulling mill. The present waterwheel was erected in 1852 and survives at the east end, although it ceased working in 1954. The ground floor ceiling has been reinforced with steel girders, but the mill is otherwise largely unaltered from the original eighteenth century building. Amongst other departments were blue or bleaching rooms, stove and dry houses, and tenter fields. An additional stove room was sited within one of the railway arches. A vertical high pressure engine, 12" cylinder x 2' stroke had been installed by 1879 to assist the wheel. Steam was raised from a Cornish boiler made by David Haworth of Rochdale. The mill ceased to work commercially in 1967, and in the period 1954-67 was powered by electricity, although the waterwheel was not removed. All the machinery is renovated and operative and powered by the waterwheel, and makes an impressive display. Externally, the reservoir and lock gates are all operative. The retaining wall to the millpond has been recently repointed and is in very good condition. The millpond is generally in good condition and free from aquatic vegetation. There is a path around the western edge of the present millpond. On the east side, the site is adjacent to the footings of a railway viaduct, which rises above and approaches the mill at its southern end. The viaduct is in a generally poor condition, with much vegetation loosening the masonry. The line is no longer used. The top-up pond, due to lack of funds, has not been cleaned up. This pond is associated with the Whittaker Mill, which now forms the western part of the museum site, and was fed by land drainage. The chimney on the other side of the main road was used to feed both mills. Higher Mill was one of the first of the fulling mills to be built in Rossendale; previously weavers had to use the Rochdale fulling mills. The mill had two waterwheels prior to the installation of the present one in 1852 (18' diameter x 9' wide backshot or breast wheel). The sites of the two relatively narrow (14' diameter) wheels can be picked out by the arches in the mill's northern wall, which are now filled with masonry. The present backshot wheel incorporated two rim gear drives and could develop up to about 37kw (50bhp). Other machinery includes six pairs of fulling stocks, with tappet wheels, which were located in the mill bottom; a wetting out machine; rotary milling machines of early twentieth century date; a flock shaker; scouring machine; mangle; tenter frame; teasle raising gig; cloth folding; and other examples of nineteenth century machinery, but not original to this complex. The mill is now a museum. Sandstone rubble, stone slate roof. Rectangluar plan extended by one bay at left end, with projecting porch near right end, parallel single-bay rounded archway, a 3-light flush mullion window at first floor, rectangular window above, similar openings in left side wall. To the left the ground floor has an arched wagon door, 3 horizontal rectangular windows, and single storey forward extension (linked to nineteenth century mill to south); upper 2 floors have three 3-light flush mullion windows. To the right of the porch a short wall has a window on each lower floor, and 2nd floor loading door. Left return wall of 2-gables has 4 windows on each of 2 intermediate levels. Rear: back- to-N7earth ground floor except for archway of leat to waterwheel; four 3-light flush mullion windows on each of the upper floors, loading door with cantilevered stone sill at upper level, 3 other windows. All windows have glazing bars, most have very small panes. To the south is the Museum of the Lancashire Textile Industry, a nineteenth century cotton spinning mill. Originally built in the early nineteenth century, it was rebuilt in 1859-60 after a fire. Sandstone rubble, slate roof. Rectangular spinning block 14 bays long with 3-span roof, 3 storeys. (10)
The woollen carding and spinning sections of Higher Mill were powered by a separate waterwheel, 17' 3" diameter x 6' wide. This wheel is not mentioned in the 1833 Irwell Reservoir scheme, suggesting that it may have been installed later. Richard Townsend leased the buildings from E R Turner after 1852, and was probably responsible for adding boiler and engine houses. The existing square chimney was erected about 1853. These improvements effectively formed an independent factory adjacent to the fulling mill. A fire devastated the mill in 1857, although the engine, boiler and wheel houses may have been saved. The subsequent reconstruction of the buildings created a wider building. Townsend resumed operations until the mid-1860s. In 1874 the Helmshore Cotton Mill Company Ltd was registered to take over from him, but the company went into liquidation in the autumn of 1878. At this time the mill had 7,000 mule spindles and 180 looms. Motive power comprised a horizontal compound engine (possibly a tandem by Furnevall), 17" + 25" cylinders x 4' stroke which had probably replaced an older vertical, and a breast wheel, 18' diameter and 6' wide, which was disused after c 1876. Steam was provided by an 1873, Earnshaw and Sons boiler. Between 1881-87 all the buildings were purchased by Joseph Porritt and Sons and re-equipped with woollen machinery. This included willows, devils, seven scribbler-carder sets, 1060 billy mule spindles and 34 woollen looms, ranging from 6' to 14' 6" reed space, the latter located on the first floor. The Porritts also installed a Yates and Thom boiler in 1906. Steam power was scrapped before World War One, and replaced by electric driving. In 1923 the Higher Mill Manufacturing Company was formed to begin cotton weaving, however the company went into liquidation in 1925. The mill was then taken over by Lawrence Whitaker and Sons Ltd, 50 looms were installed, but the buildings were soon turned over to waste preparation and mule spinning. The workforce was reduced in the 1970s, and in 1978 the remaining employees were transferred to Spring Vale, Haslingden. The mill with its machinery was purchased by the County Council and developed as the Museum of Lancashire Textile Industry (now Helmshore Mills Textile Museum). The buildings comprise a three-storey, random stone built mill with three gable ends to Holcombe Road. The main spinning mill is 15 windows long along its southern elevation. A narrower, three storey block, with a covered passage to the yard, adjoins the main building on the east and retains a hoist and loading slot. In 1880 it was used for scutching, beaming and winding. Staircase and latrine turrets are sited in the angle formed by the main building and the former scutching room. The eastern gables of the factory have an unusual projection from the building line, and the possible remains of quoins within the structure. This may be a survival of the pre 1857 building, that could indicate the original width. The boiler house faces Holcombe Road, and the engine room is behind. Remains of wall boxes, for a vertical drive, are visible both externally and internally in the mill's northern wall. The square tapered chimney is located on the hillside, north-west of the factory. There are no standing remains of the water-wheel, which was located beyond the engine house inside the main building, however, lower parts of its chamber may survive beneath the floor. The wheel had its own ponds and head race, but these were later reduced in size and used to store water for the fulling mill. A gasometer was located between the pond and Holcombe Road. Internally the mill is non-fireproof construction with cast iron columns and wooden floors. During the later nineteenth century the ground floor was used as a drying room and warehouse for the fulling mill, however an internal brick wall was later constructed to separate Whittakers' tenter frames from a devil hole. The floors above were used for carding and spinning. Only the top floor columns retain bolting faces for line shafting. Electric motors for group driving remain in situ on both upper floors, and may date from the 1920s. Machinery preserved on the ground floor includes devils of the early 1920s and a scutcher. An excellent range of condenser machinery survives on the middle floor and comprises breaker and finisher cards, a Derby doubler and 2856 operating mule spindles. The mules by Taylor, Lang and Company may be the last working examples in Lancashire. (11)
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