New Mills

New Mills
Torr Vale Mill in 1982 when the mill was still in use.
Population	9,625 (Parish)
OS grid reference	SJ995855
Civil parish	New Mills
District	High Peak
Shire county	Derbyshire
Region	East Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HIGH PEAK
Postcode district	SK22
Dialling code	01663
Police	Derbyshire
Fire	Derbyshire
Ambulance	East Midlands
UK Parliament	High Peak
List of places UK England Derbyshire

New Mills is a town in Derbyshire, England approximately 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Stockport and 15 miles (24 km) from Manchester. It is sited at the confluence of the rivers Goyt and Sett, on the border of Cheshire. The town stands above the Torrs, a 70 feet (21 m) deep gorge, cut through Woodhead Hill Sandstone of the Carboniferous period. It is situated at the north-western edge of the Peak District, England's first national park. It has a population of approximately 10,000. New Mills can refer to the built-up area that includes Newtown and Low Leighton, or the civil parish that includes the villages and hamlets of Thornsett, Hague Bar, Rowarth, Brookbottom, Gowhole, and most of Birch Vale.

New Mills was first noted for coal mining, and then for cotton spinning and then bleaching and calico printing. New Mills was served by the Peak Forest Canal, three railway lines and the A6 trunk road. Redundant mills were bought up in the mid-twentieth century by a children's sweet manufacturer. New Mills was a stronghold of Methodism.

New Mills is in the area formerly known as Bowden Middlecale^[1] which was a grouping of ten hamlets. The name of New Mylne (New Mills) was given to it from a corn-mill, erected in 1391, near to the present Salem Mill on the River Sett in the hamlet of Ollersett.^[2] This was adjacent to a convenient bridge over the Sett. By the late sixteenth century the name was applied to the group of houses that grew up round it. Coal mining was the first industry of the district, with up to 40 small pits and mines exploiting the Yard Seam. The climate, good construction stone and the availability of stable land by fast-flowing water was ideal for cotton spinning. Cotton mills and print-works were built in the Torrs Gorge from 1788. Dwellings were built on the sides of the gorge, sometimes with one home built on top of another, both being entered at their respective street levels. Examples still exist on Station Road and Meal Street.

By 1810, New Mills had nine cotton mills, plus three weaving mills and at least three printworks.^[3]

Pigot's Directory 1835 describes New Mills:

NEW MILLS, an extensive hamlet, in the parish of Glossop, and in the High Peak hundred, is 14 miles from Manchester, 6 from Chapel-en-le-Frith, and 8 from Stockport. It is pleasantly situate on the borders of Derbyshire and Cheshire; and, within a comparatively few years, has risen to importance in the manufacturing district; cotton spinning being carried on here to a considerable extent, affording employment to numerous hands.

The factories are in a great measure hid from public view in passing through the village, being built at the foot of the stream, under high towering rocks. Good house coal, as well as other kinds for the purposes of machinery, is obtained near to the village, the top bed strata running from sixteen to twenty inches thick. The village is built chiefly upon a stone quarry, but the soil in many parts is fertile, producing good crops of wheat and potatoes.^[4]

A second group of 'later' mills formed by the newly opened Peak Forest Canal in Newtown, a hamlet 800 m away on the other side of the Goyt in what was then the parish of Disley in Cheshire. Increasingly these mills and houses merged into New Mills. The soft iron-free water was suitable for bleaching and finishing and printing. With the advent of steam, and the growth of the canal network to transport raw cotton, coal and the finished product, bigger mills were built and the smaller isolated rural mills were no longer competitive. By 1846, most of New Mills' mills had stopped spinning. The small mills moved out of cotton; the larger mills along the canal moved into finishing. Torr Vale Mill had added a weaving shed in 1836, and moved into producing towelling.^[3]

The commercial method of calico printing using engraved rollers was invented in 1821 in New Mills. John Potts of Potts, Oliver and Potts used a copper-engraved master to produce rollers to transfer the inks.^[5]

Before the construction of the high-level bridges the Torrs was a major obstacle; traffic had to descend 70 feet (21 m) to cross the Goyt and then climb 70 feet (21 m) on the other bank. The first bridge to be constructed was the Queens Bridge on Church Road. The Union Road bridge was built in 1884;^[6] obtaining the land was difficult, as the arches needed to pass close to Torr Mill and properties on the Cheshire (south) bank, and Torr Top Hall had to be demolished. The new road was named after the 'union' of the two halves of the town. The first station in New Mills was at Newtown, on the Stockport, Disley and Whaley Bridge Railway; this opened 9 June 1855. This followed the line of the Peak Forest Canal staying safely away from the Torrs. The Sheffield and Midland Railway Companies' Committee company built two viaducts across the Goyt: one for a line to New Mills Central that opened in 1864, and one for the fast line through the Disley Tunnel which opened in 1904.

Cotton continued to be worked at Torr Vale Mill until 2000, giving the mill over two hundred years of service.

In the great storm of June 1872, Grove Mill and Torr Vale weir were destroyed; at Rock Mill, then being used to make paper, two blocks of buildings and considerable stock and some machinery were lost, but the only fatalities were two cows.^[7]

The River Goyt at about two o’clock a.m. on Wednesday was from 12ft to 14ft above its usual height...At New Mills, where the Goyt is joined by the River Kinder, extensive damage was done to property. The paper works of Messrs. Schlosser and Co. were damaged upwards of £1,500 as two blocks of buildings were completely washed away – one portion contained a large quantity of paper. The works of Mr. W.S. Lowe also sufferd severely, the damage being estimated at £300. Two strong stone weirs were washed away and two bridges; many acres of land were flooded.^[8] - Manchester Times

This was minor compared with events at Whaley Bridge, where Toddbrook Reservoir was overtopped and another reservoir known as Adsheads Pools breached completely, the waters sweeping through the centre of the village of Hurdsfield.^[8] The June 1930 flood was more serious for New Mills. Heavy rain over the area culminating in a cloudburst over Rowarth caused the River Sett to rise rapidly by up to 20 feet (6.1 m). Many properties on Brookside were flooded and destroyed and one rescuer was drowned. Hyde Bank Road was engulfed and buildings collapsed at Arnfield's foundry. At Rowarth, the remains of the Little Mill and the landlord of the Little Mill Inn were swept away. At Watford Bridge the river took away part of the printworks, and at Bate Mill gouged a new channel taking with it the sewage plant, 250 tons of coal, most of the road and the gas main. At Birch Vale, the problem was caused by the waters cascading down from Lantern Pike; the culvert being inadequate, the roadways became rivers washing away sections of walling. Much livestock perished.^[7]

Now almost entirely in Derbyshire, New Mills straddled the historic county boundaries of Derbyshire and Cheshire. The traditional boundary was the River Goyt: Low Leighton, Torr Top and Hidebank were always in Derbyshire, but Torr Vale Road and all of Newtown were in Cheshire. Indeed, today, all the housing to the west of the traffic lights on the Buxton Road remains in the parish of Disley in Cheshire.

The area was part of the Royal Forest of the Peak which passed into the hands of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1372. The ten hamlets, in three groups:

• Great Hamlet, Phoside and Kinder;
• Beard, Ollersett, Thornsett and Whitle;
• Chinley, Bugsworth and Brownside

made up Bowden Middlecale. The new manorial mill or the New Mylne of 1391 was at Beard. In 1713 the hamlets of Beard, Ollersett, Thornsett and Whitle were formed into a township and a new corn mill was built at Ollersett. This was superseded by the New Mills Urban Sanitary Authority in 1876.^[6] The New Mills Urban District Council operated from 1894 until 1974, when it was abolished. The town now has a town council,^[9] is part of High Peak Council, and Derbyshire County Council.

Andrew Bingham, a Conservative Party member, is the member of Parliament for the High Peak constituency.

On Derbyshire County Council, New Mills is in the New Mills division along with Hayfield and Sett. The seat is held by Beth Atkins for the Liberal Democrats. On High Peak Council, Sett has one councillor, New Mills East has two councillors and New Mills West has two councillors.^[10] The New Mills Town Council is chaired by the Liberal Democrats.

New Mills is approximately 182 miles (293 km) NNW of London and 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Stockport. It borders on Disley, in Cheshire, and Marple, in the Stockport Metropolitan Borough in Greater Manchester. The town is on the north-western edge of the Peak District, but only a small part of it is included within the boundaries of the National Park. The town includes the hamlets of Thornsett, Hague Bar, Rowarth, Brookbottom, Gowhole, and most of Birch Vale.

At its lowest point the parish is about 120m above sea level, but the valley sides rise to 370m at the highest points above Rowarth. The watercourses to the north, particularly the Rowarth Brook, drain the southward slopes of Mellor Moor, Cown Edge and Lantern Pike. The Sett and its tributary the Kinder drain much of the plateau of Kinder Scout; the Sett flows through Hayfield before passing through Birch Vale to the Torrs and the River Goyt. The Goyt rises on the moors of Axe Edge, near the River Dane and the Cat and Fiddle Inn between Buxton and Macclesfield. It passes through Whaley Bridge, where it is joined by the Todd Brook and the Black Brook from Chapel-en-le-Frith. The sides of the Goyt valley have been used to carry two railway lines, the Peak Forest Canal and the A6 trunk road from London to Carlisle via Manchester; these all pass through New Mills.

Geologically speaking, New Mills lies in the north–south-orientated syncline, the Goyt Trough. The base rocks are from the Carboniferous period, with underlying Namurian gritstone sandstones, from 333 M a.to 313 M a. Above there are coal measures present (Langsettian from 312 M a.).^[11] This was folded in the Variscan orogeny into the Goyt Trough syncline. Coal has been mined at over 30 locations in the area, including Pingot Pit. There are three narrow seams of coal present: the Red Ash, Little Mine and the Yard Seam. The Yard Coal is so named because that is the average thickness of the seam; it is the lowest seam and rests on Woodhead Hill Sandstone. In these seams lead ore has also been extracted.^[12] Beardmoor Colliery, Ollersett or Burnt Edge Colliery and Lee or New Mills Colliery all worked the 3 foot (0.91 m) seam. 1 cubic yard (0.76 m³) of coal weighs about half an imperial ton, and the Yard Seam would produce 4500 tons per acre. Bigrave Edge or Broadmoor Edge Colliery worked the Red Ash seam, which was only 18 inches (460 mm) thick.^[13]

The syncline was buried in younger rocks of the Tertiary Period. These were eroded, not least by the scouring of the Ice Age ice sheets and the pressures of the meltwaters when temperatures rose. New Mills was on the margins of glaciation, and the meltwaters sought additional routes under the ice for run off. They exploited faults and crevices in the underlying rock. In the Torrs Gorge, the Rivers Goyt and Sett cut a new channel into the strata of the Woodhead Hill Sandstone which forms the centre of New Mills. A mantle of glacial sediment, principally gravels, covered the whole of the braided valleys. In the Pleistocene period, of 12.9 k a to 11.6 k a, the rivers re-formed into single channels, and meanders were formed. These became very distorted above the constrictions of the gorges. Down cutting occurred, exposing previous layers, creating terraces that were covered with silty clay alluvium.^[11]

New Mills is served by two railway stations: New Mills Central on the Hope Valley line on the north bank of the River Goyt, and New Mills Newtown on the Buxton Line which runs on the south bank on the 175m contour. The main Manchester to Sheffield 'fast' line passes through between the town centre and Newtown, by-passing the stations. It emerges from the Disley Tunnel on a lower (150m) contour than the canal on the south bank, crosses the Goyt on a viaduct, and is joined by the Hope Valley Line at New Mills South Junction. A short branch of the Midland railway once led to the village of Hayfield. This was dismantled in 1970 and is now the Sett Valley Trail, which stretches for 2½ miles to the north-east of the town.

The A6 road passes through Newtown, a little to the south and slightly above the Buxton Line.

The Peak Forest Canal was watered in 1796. It passes through Newtown, where there is a marina. It follows the 155m contour.

The town also has a bus station, which is served by Bowers Coaches 61 (Glossop/New Mills/Buxton), Bowers Coaches 62 and 62a (Chapel-en-le-Frith/Hayfield/New Mills/Marple), TM Travel 67 (Manchester/New Mills/Tideswell/Chesterfield), Stagecoach Manchester 358 (Hayfield/New Mills/Marple/Stockport) and Bowers Coaches 389 (New Mills town services).

The principal secondary school is the New Mills School and Business and Enterprise College.^[14] This comprehensive school occupies the buildings of the former New Mills Grammar School and educates children from 11 to 19 years of age. There are six primary schools: St. George's school (CE), St. Mary's (RC), New Mills County Primary, Newtown, Hague Bar and Thornsett.

New Mills' economy was originally built on agriculture, then coal mining and then cotton spinning and bleaching. There was a little weaving but cotton bleaching and calico printing continued into the second half of the twentieth century. The mills have now all closed. Today Swizzels Matlow, who make children's sweets, is a large employer.^[15] The company transferred to New Mills from London during the Blitz and has remained ever since.^[16] Famous brands include 'Parma Violets', 'Refresher' chews, 'Drumstick' lollies and - perhaps most famously - Love Hearts.^[15] Folk memory relates that children from local schools were often asked to test new sweet flavours that were created.^{[citation needed]}.

There is also a history of iron working, though this has ceased. Ironstone was also found in shales of the lower coal measures, and early water-powered charcoal furnaces was located at Jow-Hole furnace towards Furness Vale. In the nineteenth century, the Midland Iron Works occupied Barnes Mill in the Torrs; the Victoria Foundry was on Hyde Bank Road (among their products were gas lamp posts for the town council) as was the other small foundry in Wilde's scrapyard. On Albion Road in Newtown is John Hawthorn's foundry. There was also a brass foundry, on the site of the current Heritage Centre.^[17]

Tourism was boosted in 1984 when the Torrs was reopened as a riverside park, and further when the spectacular Millennium Walkway opened in 1999, joining the two ends of the gorge.

The Plain English Campaign has its headquarters in the town.^[18]

New Mills sits atop The Torrs, a dramatic gorge through which the Rivers Goyt and Sett flow. Nestled in a bend of the Goyt is Torr Vale Mill, a Grade II* listed building. The Torrs Millennium Walkway, overlooking the mill, was built at a cost of £525,000 (almost half from the Millennium Commission) by Derbyshire County Council’s in-house engineers. The walkway spans the otherwise inaccessible cliff wall above the River Goyt. Part rises from the riverbed on stilts and part is cantilevered off the railway retaining wall. It provided the final link in the 225-mile (362 km) Midshires Way.

Torrs Hydro is a 2.4-metre-diameter 'Reverse Archimedean Screw' micro hydroelectric scheme at the Torr Weir on the Goyt. It generates 70 kW of electricity. Nicknamed 'Archie', it is owned by the community.^[19] The electriciy is supplied to the Co-operative supermarket, and any excess is fed back into the National Grid.

The area around Mellor and New Mills has a strong Methodist tradition. John Wesley first preached in the area in 1740, at a sheepfold at the Bongs in neighbouring Mellor.^[3] He visited again on 28 April 1745, 12 May 1747 and 31 August 1748. The Wesleyan Methodists were established in 1748. At first, meetings were held in people's homes; then land was bought on the High Street for a Wesleyan chapel in 1766.^[3] This was the first place of worship in the town. Wesley visited again in 1768, 1772, 1774, 1776, 1779, 1782 and 1788.^[3] By 1808 that chapel was too small, and a larger one was built in St Georges Road, Brookside (Low Leighton).The church was influential and many of the millowners were members: Samuel Schofield, of Warksmoor House and of Torr Mill, the Armstrongs of Torr Vale Mill, the Hibbert family, including Robert Hibbert, of Warksmoor who built the first cotton mill in Newtown, the Barnes, Thatchers, Arnfields, Bridges, Willans and Bennetts, all industrialists, are buried in the chapel. The larger chapel was closed and demolished in the 1960s and the Methodists have reverted to the High Street Chapel.^[3] The Association Methodists' stone chapel was erected in 1838, and the Primitive Methodists built one in 1827. The Friends Meeting House dating from 1717 is in Low Leighton, and the independents, the Congregational church (Providence church), was built on Mellor Road, Whitle, in 1823.^[20]

The hamlets of Bowden Middlecale and Mellor were originally in the ancient parish of Glossop. Chapelries were established at Mellor and Hayfield, and New Mills was split between the two. The Church of England parish church of St George's was built in 1839 to a simple renaissance plan with galleries; it has 7 bays, decorated with simple Gothic-style lancet windows. It 1844 the hamlets of Beard, Ollersett, Thornsett and Whitle became a parish.

The Church of the Annunciation, St. Mary's Road is the Roman Catholic church. It is in the parish of St Mary'ś, Marple Bridge and New Mills in the Diocese of Nottingham. The building was built in the Decorated Gothic style in 1846; its spire is 110 feet (34 m) high.^[20]

New Mills plays host to the One World Festival^[21] every June. The festival incorporates "a mixture of serious issues, good music and fun in the open air". The free one-day event raises awareness of organisations that work "for a better, fairer world". In 2008 the festival's theme was 'Reduce, Re-use, Recycle'. Part of this theme has been to launch a campaign to make New Mills plastic-bag-free under the banner 'One World, One Bag'.

New Mills A.F.C. ('The Millers') are the local football team and play in the North West Counties League Premier Division. The football ground at Church Lane boasts two pitches — one 'all weather' — and floodlights. New Mills Cricket Club, with their ground on Church Road, play in the Derbyshire and Cheshire League. There is a leisure centre, including a swimming pool, which opened in 1980. Until the early 1980s, the town held an annual cycle race.

New Mills Golf Club is a members' club set on the top of the northerly hill overlooking the town, with views of Kinder Scout, the city of Manchester and the Welsh mountains. The course was formed in 1907 and extended to its current 18-hole, 5604-yard par 69 course in 2003 prior to the clubhouse extension and centenary celebration in 2007.

• Thomas Handford: The interpretation plaque at the town's former prison tells it all:

‘ A working man, a teetotaler for ten years, who was formerly a notorious drinker and a notorious poacher has recently invested his sober earnings in the purchase of the town prison which he has converted into a comfortable dwelling house. Frequently an inmate of the prison whilst a drunkard and poacher, he is now owner of the whole and occupier of the premises. Thomas Handford 1854 ’.^[22]

• List of mills in Derbyshire

• New Mills Local History Society
• Steve Lewis: History of New Mills
• New Mills Festival Website - Current
• The New Mills School website
• Torrs Hydro New Mills