Roy B

GN Notes A high speed affair. An early battle between 1 and 515 saw Frank try to snookerball 216 into Tom's back wheel. 515 then had a race long duel with 212. 1 got tangled with 87 in turn 2 delaying his progress. 445 had the front left wheel collapse.

Final Focus Another big pile up in turn 1. 445, 502, 94, 34 and 335 involved with Dilligaf rolled over. All ok. Simon Traves entertained with a roll on the backstraight at the restart. A high speed masterclass followed from 445 to take the win with 217 a quarter of a lap back. A great battle between 1 and 515 in the closing laps. Tom got out of shape down the start straight and Frank made his move clattering into his nerf rail and got past him into turn 1. Entering turn 3 on the last lap Tom returned the favour with a decent hit which got him back in front for the flag.

Consolation Catch Up 445 on it from the get go. A big push into turn 1 sees a monster pile up ensue. 16, 555, 73, 13, 500, 526, 24 amongst others all end up in a heap. All drivers ok. 339 leads off 7 yellows at the restart which 445 soon blasts through for the win. 326 loses out on a qualifying spot when he hits the backstraight wall with a lap to go.

Heat Three Happenings 463, 4 and 197 make the early running. 4 tangles with 319 down the backstraight and pulls off shortly after. 463 leads off at the first restart, with 197 and 21 doing likewise after another caution. Red flags are waved for a spring on the track. 45 and 463 hit the turn 1 fence with Nige pulling off with a buckled wheel. 446 comes through the field with liberal use of the front end. Ryan away up front for the win.

Heat Two Happenings 313 fires 267 into turn 1. 249 leaves a couple of furrows on the turf. The cars slow without a caution flag waving. 73 fires 313 into turn 3, then rolls in turn 1 after tangling with 98. 136 leads off the restart until 445 comes past with a buckled right rear wheel. The 445 front right wheel then breaks off letting 166 take the chase of the hard charging 136. Bobby gets past for the victory.

A big hello from Odsal The Chase Final Feature A case of who could master the slippery track. Both 515 and 326 had trouble getting grip with Frank sliding wide in turn 1. 259 briefly took the lead with a push on the 1 car. Sarge ended up stuck on the inside of the backstraight. 1 and 16 clashed on the backstraight with Mat ending up facing the wrong way. Tom set sail to master the conditions threading his way through slower cars. 217 was the only other car with the speed to match. A flat left rear ended the World Champ's chances however and Lee took over at the front for the victory. (Internet's hit and miss at the moment)

Grand National Notes 515 sent wide into parked cars in turn two and loses time. 166 and 555 clash in turn 4 which ends up with Bobby G entering the home straight backwards. 335 performs a mutiple roll down the homestraight. Mark ok, the car not. 392 and 345 lead off the restart. However, something lets go on the 392 car and he comes to a stop bringing out another caution. 20 shoves 345 aside to move to a lead he holds to the finish. JJ pulls off at halfway. 4 and 515 battling as Tom rockets through for a 3rd place finish.

Final Focus 197 scatters the reds at the start as JJ makes the break riding out a hit from 249 as he moves forward. 83 leads up front. 515 and 4 having a dice until Frankie's right rear tyre let go. 166 hits a turn 4 marker tyre and goes a lap down. He makes it difficult for the top boys as they come through to lap him. A brief duel between 4 and 1 before Tom pulls clear. The closing laps sees JJ in the lead. The new car is certainly rapid. After being overtaken by the 1 car he comes in with a big last bender on Tom. Both bounce off the fence and the World Champ takes the victory.

Consolation Catch Up A cracker. 234 and 83 lead the field away. 45 hits the turn 4 fence, and then goes one better than Jakey last week by rolling it in turn one. All on the first lap too! All ok. Nige waving to the crowd. Car looks ok as well. 541, 83 and 463 head the restart. 326 comes in with the bumper and moves 463 aside. 93 tangles with 446 down the back straight resulting in a dead stop for Joe. Sam then gets collected by 595. 326 takes the lead from 541 on the restart and with 5 to go 4 arrives on the scene. An enthralling battle ensues between these two with Dan taking the lead and Sarge replying with a hit into turn 3 which puts him back in front with 3 to go. Dan bides his time until the last corner with a perfectly executed shove on 326 and waves bye bye out the cab to Mark as he takes the victory.

Heat Two Happenings 526 slows coming out of turn 4 on the start but manages to avoid getting clobbered. 235 and 268 come together on the back straight with Richard nearly rolling. Caution flag to carry his rearranged car off. 83 leads off the restart with 13 close behind. 321 spins 541 out on turn 2. 16 sets sail for the front with 555 the second red. 24 v 13 for the lead. 4 drifts wide in turn 1 and loses time. Mat comfortably takes the victory ahead of Tom, as 446 puts a huge hit in on 491 as they enter turn four.

Heat One Happenings 234 and 339 take an early lead. 191 tangles with 463 in turn 4 as 345 and 216 do likewise. 197 is first red through. 212 and 515 duel throughout the race. 47, 120 and 339 are the lead three. 275 spins in turn 3 holding up 197. 47 takes the victory in a dusty race.

Mick Sworder's immaculate Volvo FH16 750 gets a seven page feature in the June issue of Truck & Driver. The care and devotion shown by Mick has it featured as the editor's choice for the second time. It is a great article covering the transport history of the Sworder family. Stock cars also get a mention. (Photo credits to Tom Cunningham)

Truly heartbreaking news. My sincere condolences to Chrissy, family and friends. RIP Tim.

Continued from above: Our last mill of note downstream of here is Washwheel Mill. This was a much smaller mill and was never water powered. A fine chimney survives standing tall over the valley. The mill floor and chimney. There was not enough gradient here for the brook to power a waterwheel, so a Lancashire boiler was used. The boiler survived in the undergrowth until the early 1950’s but was wrenched from its housing by an enthusiastic scrap dealer and hauled away in the middle of the night. The pipe that supplied the boiler with water from the brook. In its early days the mill was used for bleaching woven quilts for a Bolton spinning mill. In 1880 the works were taken over and used for bleaching cotton waste. Both this and Deeply Vale shared the workforce between them dependant on workload. Amongst the 201 people that were employed fifty were under the age of 13, and sixty were between 13 -18. A child was allowed to begin work in the mill at the age of nine so long as they had been examined by a doctor. A conversation between the mill overseer and a child is reported to have gone like this: “Can I start work on Monday?” “No” replied the overseer “you haven’t seen the doctor”, so the child replied ”But I’ve got all my back teeth” and that was sufficient to clinch the job! A typical day for a 14 year old girl would entail getting up at 05:30 and walking the two miles to the mill. On arrival she would have worked a twelve hour shift before walking home again. Imagine having to do this in winter. Of the mills we’ve visited all eventually succumbed to the requirements of the reservoir. Washwheel bleachworks survived until 1919 when the owner then sold out to the Bradford Dyers Association and the mill closed four months later. The valley was not completely deserted however as the cottages mentioned earlier were occupied until the 1950’s. Several could be rented for as little as two and sixpence a week and, despite their remoteness provided cheap accommodation for many families during then lean years between the wars. Industry, however, never returned to the valley. Gradually the mill timbers decayed and the walls crumbled; the machinery, the engines and the great wheels were hauled away for scrap. The industrial history of the Cheesden valley, rich in the enterprise and the hardship from which had grown the great age of Lancashire textile manufacture finally drew to a close. From the bleak, windswept moorlands above Four Acre to the lush woodlands of the lower valley is some four miles. In this distance what is left will eventually become overgrown and hidden from view completely. Nature has reasserted herself among the silent stones, and the waters of the brook once again flow unhindered by the needs of man. Pics in the gallery That’s it folks. We’ll all meet back for more explores at the next lockdown, or end of season whichever comes first. Cheers, and happy race-going, Roy

Continued from above: The hub and axle from the waterwheel have disappeared within the last thirty years. Moving further down the valley the brook disappears beneath an arched tunnel over which the next mill - Croston Close - was built. This had survived a catastrophe in 1834 when flood waters roared through the valley washing away parts of the site. It survived for a further forty years as a woollen mill. There were two waterwheels here which were used for powering three carding engines. The mill had originally begun by spinning wool for the cottage weavers. On the adjacent hillside the line of a flue which went from the boilerhouse leads up to the top where there are the remains of a small chimney. It is said that at one time the flue was used to carry away the fumes of an illicit whisky still which operated there! The line of the flue leads uphill to the ruins of the chimney As the nineteenth century grew, so too did the industries of the nearby towns of Rochdale to the east, and Bury and Bolton over the hills to the west. The humble valley mills were in no position to compete with the vast textile empires now being established in the growing towns. Nor could they afford the new and sophisticated machinery which allowed the mills to produce fine cottons of ever increasing quality. The rapidly rising cotton industry did, however, produce a by-product which the valley mills used as a substitute for their declining wool trade. As part of the spinning process the large textile concerns applied a starch to the spindles before spinning. This dried out and left a core of hardened paste. The recovery and recycling of these cores brought a hard waste trade to the valley mills. At the time Lancashire was operating over forty million spindles and six hundred thousand looms so there was plenty of recycling to do. Our journey from here to our next mill takes us past Wind Hill Pit. The trackbed of a former tramway etches a thin line against the side of the hill leading to the pit. The gradient of the line allowed loaded wagons to enter the valley by their own momentum. At the bottom of the hill a rectangular area is all that remains of the terminal where the wagons were unloaded into carts. The wagons made over twenty two journeys a day up and down the incline with coal to supply the next mill down the valley (which we visit next). They were hauled back by means of a cable which was powered by a stationary engine situated at the top of the pit. There are also traces of staining to the stonework here caused by the use of metallic salts in the cloth dyeing process that were washed downstream. In this location were four rows of workers cottages, one of which was used as a grocers shop. ‘Owd P’s was its name, and it was a shop where ale was sold and little of anything else. It appears that the chief recreation was the playing of cards and the drinking of ale bought at a penny a time. Owd P had a good trade as the nearest inn was Owd Betts up on the turnpike. The brewing of ale was as common as baking 140yrs ago. His grandmother, for instance, brewed twice a week regularly. Between here and our next mill was the site of the Deeply Vale Festivals. These were unique free festivals held between 1976 -79. They were regarded as significant events that united punk music into the festival scene. They brought together hippies and punks; a festival which drew free spirited individuals to a little known part of the north-west from all over the country. Deeply Vale may have only been held for four years but the impact this free festival had on the music scene can still be felt today. Because Deeply Vale didn't survive like, say Glastonbury, it does have more of a magical thing about it. You could compare it to people always remembering Hendrix or Janis Joplin as stars who died young as opposed to some overweight person playing comeback tours. It never had the chance to get old. At the first festival in 1976 around 300 attended. That number rose to an estimated 20,000 for Deeply Vale's final two years. As well as the varied line-up, the festival was noteworthy for the impact on many of the fans who attended and who would go on to become influential musicians in their own right. The Smiths, Stone Roses, the Chameleons, Doves, the Wedding Present and Chumbawamba – members from all these bands were influenced by what they witnessed in the fields between Bury and Rochdale. On stage, a diverse mixture of hippy idealists, anti-establishment punks and protest singers created an unforgettable mix. The festival brought together a lot of different factions of people. They were all from slightly diverse, left-field cultures and they threw their lot in and contributed something. Tony Wilson, who launched Factory Records, helped compere the event in 1978, the Durutti Column played only their fourth ever gig at the event, The Fall were festival regulars. Remarkably, Deeply Vale remained true to its free festival principles until it ended in 1979. When it started there was such a thing as community spirit and people working together. It got to the point where there were two factions. With anything that grows as it had done, you always get them. One school of thought was just to carry on and ignore the authorities and not meet licensing conditions and just do it. Then there were people who thought the only way to carry on with this was within the system but if you do that you inevitably become part of the system. It got to the stage that it needed some sort of organisational body, and people to stand up and be responsible for licensing and health and safety and maybe Deeply Vale was just a bit too spontaneous for that. As we get closer to the mill a brick building houses some abandoned pumps of more recent times which used to control the brook’s flow in times of heavy rainfall. One of the pumps controls was manufactured by Allen West and Co of Brighton, who were founded in 1910. During WW1 the company made the firing head for the Stokes mortar and 100 rounds. Allen West smuggled it to France in his luggage and as a result of trials there it was adopted for service use. In 1929 the company acquired a disused rolling mill at Southampton which they used for heavy engineering construction. In WW2 the company produced radar equipment, switchgear and motor control gear for the war effort. In 1961 they had 3000 employees, manufacturing electrical motor control gear for all applications. In 1973 they were taken over by General Electric of the USA. Also in the building was a gauge manufactured by Evershed and Vignoles of Acton Lane Works in Chiswick. The company was founded in 1885 and made speed indicators for twin-screw ships. During WW1 they manufactured steering and target equipment for the Royal Navy, with aircraft instruments made in WW2. By 1961 they had 1870 employees but were now under the control of British American Tobacco. The company remained involved in the manufacture of defence electronic equipment. After various takeovers the workforce had reduced down to 450 people by 1980. The Acton Lane works were closed in 1986 with the company becoming part of Megger Ltd based in Dover. We now approach the Deeply Vale Mill complex. There would have been people who spent their entire working life here enduring hardship daily. Now 120 years later it is a tranquil place of absolute silence interspersed with birdsong and the buzzing of bees. A stone bridge leads to a cobbled road and descends into the site. The Cheesden Brook flows down a stone lined channel which was built to withstand erosion. It a superb example of the stonemasons work. The pit which housed a thirty feet waterwheel is in amongst the trees, and the circular depression of a gas-holder is visible. A solid stone building in the centre of the site was converted to three furnaces with the arrival of coal for the steam engine. The triple furnace block. This also allowed the production of gas for lighting. A few items remain from the steam engine emplacement such as brackets and drilled stone blocks. During the nineteenth century the concentration of mills and houses here created an industrial village in the valley. From the beginning this mill was concerned with the finishing of cloth, not its manufacture. The premises consisted of a print shop, dyehouse, vats, colour shop, drying stove room and a bleached goods dryhouse. All were run by a complicated set of dash wheels and gears connected in series to the steam engine. Two reservoirs were needed to keep the whole site supplied with enough water. The works had the power to bleach and print upwards of six thousand pieces of cloth per week. The owners got into financial difficulties, and went bankrupt however after a violent storm washed part of the mill away. The works were taken over by a Mr. Earnshaw who during its rebuilding fell into some gearing and was torn in two. It was decided to break the pattern of industry and turn to a product in many ways allied to cotton – the manufacture of paper. A directory from 1888 lists it as Deeply Vale Paper Manufacturing Company, situated at Deeply Vale Paper Mill producing paper blinds. Bankruptcy loomed again however as the difficulty in getting goods out of the valley to the towns was very expensive and closure came at the turn of the twentieth century. Continues below:

Continued from above: The mill in the early 1920’s. The same view today. The brook was diverted to flow through the mill. Three decades ago the hub and axle from the thirty feet diameter waterwheel were still there. The wheel was six feet wide with iron vanes to take the falling water, and was fitted with wooden spokes and rim. The axle and shafts were made of cast iron, and pulleys of six feet in diameter operated the drive. A few stones mark the site of a number of cottages built within a few yards of the mill, and a lonely pear tree is all that remains of the gardens. The mill was built in 1786 as a fulling mill. Fulling is a process by which woollen cloth is subject to heat, moisture and pressure so that the fibres are locked together and felting is created. In the very early days the fulling was done by trampling the cloth underfoot. This was a very arduous and slow task so the coming of the waterwheel speeded up the process immeasurably. By a series of heavy beech headed hammers driven from a cam on a rotating shaft the fabric was driven round in a trough containing a solution of fullers earth. Cheesden Lumb was able to extend its services with the addition of the waterwheel. Carding, bleaching and dyeing processes were added to its range. The bleaching process involved hanging the cloth in a room in the centre of which would be placed a pile of sulphur. A piece of hot metal was then placed on the sulphur and the room would soon be filled with the fumes of sulphur dioxide to start the process. It would seem, however, that not only the cloth was subjected to this treatment for it was said that mothers would place their children amongst the fumes to cure them of whooping cough! Despite its close proximity to the Rochdale Turnpike (now the A680) the mill sent its cartloads of yarn down the rough, narrow track through the valley three times a week on the long journey to the warehouses in Manchester, rapidly growing as a world centre of the cotton trade. For the carters of the valley, the journey meant a long day, rising before dawn and leaving the mill at about six in the morning. They regarded themselves as having made good time if they were passing Manchester Cathedral at 10:00a.m., then on to the cotton warehouses. Whilst their carts were emptied and reloaded there was time for some food and a pint of good ale in one of the city’s hostelries. By mid-afternoon they would be setting off back once more for the moors with another load of raw cotton. More than one carter wearied by the journey, or soothed by the good ale has been drawn in gentle slumber by faithful horses towards his destination. As the cart approached the mill, often as late as ten in the evening, four ‘chain horses’ would be sent out to help it up the final gradients. The early 1800’s saw the mill at its peak but it was forced to diversify in the 1860’s to process cotton waste. This was the period of the American Civil War (1861-1865) when the blockade of raw cotton imports caused considerable hardship to the Lancashire cotton workers. The need to conserve and supplement the reduced supplies made the reclaimation of cotton waste a necessity and the survival of the valley mills became a priority. By the end of the 1880’s the mill had come to rely on the manufacture of lampwicks. When plans for the Ashworth Moor Reservoir were laid in the 1890’s the landowner decided to close the mills in the reservoir catchment area. Despite the then owner of the mill challenging the decision the requirements of the reservoir stipulated that the mill’s water rights were to be surrendered. The mill closed in 1898. Continues below:

Continued from above: Okay folks, I think it’s time for a brew before we set off down the valley. Sit back and we’ll have a look at some info about this time in our long lost past. Lancashire’s cotton production was so prolific that ‘it made for itself before breakfast and for the rest of the world afterwards’. Handloom weavers were the high-rollers of the textile industry in the final decade of the 1700’s. While spinning was now a mechanised operation, making thread cheaper and more plentiful, no-one had yet come up with a satisfactory power loom - so there was a production bottleneck which the weavers were happy to exploit. A Bolton handloom weaver could earn a princely £1 10s a week in the mid 1790’s. But this very fact - and the invention and development of the power loom - sowed the seeds of the trade's destruction. Good pay and an increasing demand for cloth brought workers, particularly Irish immigrants, flooding in to the relatively easily-learned handloom weaving trade. So even before power looms made any real impact, wages had begun to fall as a result of an imbalance of supply over demand. There were just too many people chasing what was seen as easy money. By 1807, because of Britain's war with France, trade was in deep recession and manufacturers were taking advantage of the situation by putting out work to handloom weavers at breadline prices. They then stockpiled the completed pieces so they could cash in at higher rates when better times returned. For the cottage weaver, it was the first real hint of the troubles ahead. Things were no better for those who had opted for factory employment on the new, steam-powered looms. In May, 1808, the Weavers' Minimum Wage Bill was rejected by the House of Commons. Five days later, 6,000 weavers gathered on St George's Fields in Manchester to protest and call for a 33per cent wage increase - the average pay for an 84-hour week was now down to about 8s (40p). The protestors were dispersed by dragoons, but the following day 15,000 gathered in the same spot and one man was killed when the dragoons opened fire. The soldiers later apologised and took up a collection for the man's family. A strike followed and weavers ruined cloth on the looms by squirting sulphuric acid through factory windows. In Rochdale, prisoners were released and the town jail was torched. In Bolton, troops broke up a meeting. It all ended in compromise in July, when the weavers went back to work with a phased 20per cent increase. There had been approximately 75,000 handloom weavers in Britain in 1795. This had grown to more than 200,000 by 1812, by which time power-loom factories were mushrooming. The power loom, invented by the Rev Edmund Cartwright in 1785, was faster and more economical than the handloom, and could be operated by young, untrained hands who were willing to work for a pittance. Inexorably, as the machinery improved and the number of factories grew, efficiency and competition forced prices ever lower and the handloom weaver, painfully limited in the amount of cloth he could produce, found himself less and less able to earn a living wage. The Luddites now came on the scene, and despite the passing in February of Ryder's Act, making machine-breaking a capital offence instead of a transportable one, the summer was peppered with riots and loom smashing. Eight people were executed at Lancaster, four for mill-burning, three for breaking into a house to steal food, and a woman for stealing potatoes, while at Middleton four were killed during rioting. Luddism faded out of the picture but unrest was never far away. The year 1817 was marked by the Blanketeers March. Hundreds of hungry weavers, carrying blankets to sleep in, set off from Manchester to petition the Prince Regent against Home Secretary Lord Sidmouth's repression. Before they reached Macclesfield, more than 200 had been arrested and the rest were dispersed. The idea of a Government-applied minimum wage which would give handloom weavers some basic security was still being mooted, and not just by the weavers themselves. Some of the more respectable "putting-out" firms were beginning to see the benefits of such a scheme as they battled against competition from cheapskate machine-weaving businesses who undercut them by paying their unskilled workers starvation rates. Long slow decline Despite everything, however, the number of handloom weavers continued to increase, reaching 240,000 by 1820 before the long, slow decline set in. By 1829, the number had dropped to 225,000 who were earning little more than 5s a week, while there were now 60,000 power looms in operation. By 1833 there were just 213,000 handloom weavers left, and as more and more gave up the unequal fight the total two years later was down to 188,000. Handloom weavers' wages in north-east Lancashire that were paid by manufacturers for a piece of calico, was 3s 7d in 1818, 2s 11d in 1824 and a little over 2s 1d a year later. Handloom weavers were ever keen to publicise their plight when the opportunity arose. Actress Fanny Kemble was one of the guests at the opening of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway in 1830, and she describes the arrival of the first train into Manchester, packed with dignitaries including the Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington: "High above the grim and grimy crowd of scowling faces, a loom had been erected, at which sat a tattered, starved-looking weaver, evidently set there as a representative man, to protest against the triumph of machinery and the gain and glory which the wealthy Liverpool and Manchester men were likely to derive from it." John Phillips Kay, secretary to Manchester's Special Board of Health, described the weavers' plight in 1832: "The handloom weavers ... still continue a very extensive class, and though they labour 14 hours upwards daily, earn only from five to seven shillings a week. They consist chiefly of Irish and are affected by all the causes of moral and physical depression ... ill-fed, ill-clothed, half-sheltered and ignorant - weaving in close, damp cellars or crowded workshops." "On every hand," wrote Thomas Carlyle, "the living artisan is driven from his workshop to make room for the speedier, inanimate one. The shuttle drops from the fingers of the weaver and falls into iron fingers that ply it faster." The biggest drop in the handloom weaving ranks came in the 10 years from 1835 - in this period, they lost more than two thirds of their number and were down to 60,000. By 1844, even those hardy souls who persisted in the trade were trodden down by despair. German author Jakob Venedey, who visited Manchester in that year, visited one family of handloom weavers in Ancoats and reported: "Their hardship had lasted long enough to destroy their old pride, to make them forget their former wealth. "Nearly a dozen people sat crowded in a kind of 'cellar kitchen.' The equipment consisted of smoothed-down benches and tables, and a pot with food for everybody was on the stove. The people themselves looked ragged, tattered, dirty and wild - like the worst kind." By 1861 it was all but over: just 7,000 handloom weavers remained, none able to scrape even the most meagre living despite toiling up to 15 hours a day. The rise of powerlooms was, of course, in direct contrast: 2,400 in 1813, 14,150 in 1820 and 100,000 by 1833. The figure reached a quarter of a million in 1850 and 400,000 11 years later. The area we are looking at is fed by the Cheesden Brook. While undeniably, steam pushed the Industrial Revolution to its limits, it was water power that got things started. Lancashire's uplands provided not just the damp atmosphere necessary for cotton production, but the powerful streams needed to turn the water wheels that ran the machinery long before steam power came on the scene. They were also home to the farmers on whom the industry was built. For a quarter of a century or more, water was the only motive power available to the mill owner. When steam eventually entered the picture, the two systems would run side by side for the best part of a century, and even some of the hill-valley mills converted at least partially to steam, switching to mechanical power in times of drought. But just as the supermarket eventually forced out the corner shop, coal power would inevitably see off water power in the end. With the need for waterwheels removed, mills would move down from the hills and into the towns, where workers were more readily available and communications were far easier. Manchester sits in a natural amphitheatre, circled from the south-east to the north-west by hills and moorland. The prevailing, moisture-laden winds from the Atlantic unload their rain here as they cross over these high places, and dozens of brooks and streams flow down. They converge into the Rivers Irwell and Mersey, which join west of Manchester and reach the sea at Liverpool. Many of these moorland waters were harnessed to power the early mills of the revolution. The hills above Manchester's satellite towns of Stalybridge, Ashton, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury and Bolton are still scarred by the remains of these early industrial enterprises. By looking at just one valley we can see how they all developed and thrived. The Cheesden Valley runs north to south, with the Cheesden Brook an inconsequential little stream, rising in the high moors near the village of Turn and flowing through the valley for a distance of maybe six or seven miles before joining the River Roche, which feeds the Irwell near Bury. Before the coming of industry, the hardy folk who farmed this inhospitable countryside eked out a living by weaving - mostly wool from their own sheep - at the handloom, and the early mills were designed to help them with their supply of yarn and the provision of ancillary services. Significantly, the valley is just a couple of miles from a farmstead and group of cottages at Park. It was in one of these cottages in the early years of the 1700’s that a man was born who by his skill and ingenuity was to lay the foundations of a new era. The man was John Kay, who in 1733 invented the flying shuttle to transform handloom weaving and spark off the Industrial Revolution. The fly-shuttle was a device which enabled cloth to be woven in widths broader than the span of a weaver’s arm with a notable increase in production. Coincidentally, another John Kay built Cheesden Valley's Lumb Mill in 1786, as a fulling mill, turning woollens into felted materials. What sort of life did these early textile workers lead? At a farm known as Shuttleworth Moss lived a farmer by the name of Richard Ramsbottom, sometimes known as "Great Dicky" or "Dicky o'John's"-and his wife Mary, two sons, and seven daughters. Dicky was the fire-tenter at Cheesden Mill, and when his sons and daughters got old enough they worked at the mill. The Ramsbottoms kept three cows, which supplied them with milk and butter and the work of the farm had to be attended to after mill hours. John Haworth's Four-Acre Mill was high on the moors above Cheesden and was powered by a 36-foot waterwheel. Haworth, who diverted the waters of a tributary stream to turn his wheel, later built a huge lodge to provide a consistent head of water for himself and other mill owners - until then, they had been at the whim of the weather, laying off workers during dry spells and calling them in at all hours when the valley flooded. (More on Mr. Haworth later). Soon, the seemingly short stretch of Cheesden Brook provided power for no fewer than 15 mills and employment for 2,000 workers - proof of the old millers' dictum that water power can be used but never spent. Bustling communities grew up in what had once been a desolate region. The way of life changed - as powered weaving was introduced, the putting-out system died and with it, the cottage handloom. The first stage of industrialisation was complete. These moorland mills held their own for more than half a century against their big-town rivals, many finding a niche for them-selves as mainline competition increased, by developing as cotton-waste spinners. This involved recycling the inner core of yarn cops, which had been stiffened in manufacture by the application of starch paste to avoid the need for separate wooden bobbins. During the cotton famine caused by the American Civil War in the 1860s, these waste mills actually experienced a boom. However, by the 1870s the writing was on the wall for the moorland mills as they struggled to compete against the economics of their massive rivals in the towns and, before the turn of the century, they had all but vanished. Today, all that remain to remind us of these once-thriving communities are a few crumbling walls and the odd scrap of rusting ironwork. It’s time to put those biscuits away and get the boots on as we now head out to see what’s left. The triangle formed by Ramsbottom, Bury and Rochdale. The Cheesden valley runs down the centre. We start off next to the Ashworth Moor Reservoir which is opposite the pub known as ‘Owd Betts’ on the A680 which runs between Edenfield and Rochdale. The pub was built in 1796 by Richard and Mary Ashworth and passed to their son John and his wife Betty in the mid 1800’s. At that time it was known as the ‘Hare and Hounds Inn’. After John passed away in 1869 Betty continued to run the inn alone. It was during this time it became known as ‘Owd Betts’. Betty passed away at the age of 93, and in the 1950’s the pub’s name was officially changed as a fitting testimony to the grand old lady. It is believed that Betty may still keep an eye on her pub today as many staff members have reported strange happenings and regularly hearing footsteps! The land use in this area dates back well before the 1500’s when it was first used for the woollen industry. A local farmer who lived at Reddisher would walk to Nangreaves, a journey of five miles to collect his beam of yarn. When in later years he bought a donkey to ease his burden he was accused of ‘over reaching himself’! The principle areas of manufacture at that time were in Gloucestershire, Devonshire, Oxfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, North Essex and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Even today there is evidence of this once great industry in, for instance, Saffron Walden where the autumn crocus was grown to produce the orange dye which gave the town its name, also the Madder Market in Norwich, and the wool market in Lavenham. To reach the top of the valley entails a walk across the peat covered moorland to the east of Ashworth Moor reservoir. Between the reservoir and the high ground i had noticed an infectious diseases hospital marked on an old map from the early 1800’s. This needed investigating as the latest map showed a square indicating a ruin in that area. Sure enough the remains are still there. Above ground there is not a lot to see just mainly a couple of gate posts and stone door frames. It must have been very small as it is not much bigger than a farmhouse. In amongst the ruins I noticed an archway disappearing underground. It wasn’t the easiest to get through but inside was well worth it. A low vaulted ceiling sits above a stone slab mortuary table complete with a sheep’s skull! A small furnace/chimney for cremations is alongside. In the opposite corner is a culvert leading into an underground stream. This would have been used as a sluice for washing out the mortuary. The mortuary slabs complete with skull, and the blocked up furnace. Leaving here we head for the source of the Cheesden Brook. It starts as a small stream running down from the top of the moors and is joined by the Grane Brook and then flows as one water down the valley. Here is the location of the most northerly of the mills that at Four Acre. The pit which housed the 36 feet diameter waterwheel can still be seen. The mill is now reduced to rubble and only a sturdy sycamore tree stands guard over the ruins providing shade and shelter for the moorland sheep. In their early years the mills were heavily dependent on regular rainfall to power the waterwheels. The Cheesden Brook was not of sufficient height here to provide a strong enough flow so the mill owner built an embankment across the higher Grane Brook and diverted the water into a reservoir he had created. He fitted sluices to guarantee a steady flow of water to the industries further down the valley. When the work was complete he called a meeting of the valley mill owners and offered the use of the water to each of them. The acceptance was unanimous apart from one objector so he announced that, ”If all don’t want it, then none shall have it!” and kept the sluices closed. The dissenter may possibly have been his brother. History has provided countless examples of the bitterness which can exist between members of a family and these were no exception. In later years one of the brothers became ill. He was convinced his end was near so sent a messenger to request his brother to visit him so that they could make their peace. The brother listened to the messenger and replied “Now thee go back an tell’im as sent thee to get on wi’ ‘is deeing. I want to see him neither dead or alive!” We retrace our way southwards now, cross over the A680, and follow the brook until we come to the dramatic ruins of Cheesden Lumb. One of the earliest built of the valley mills its presence dominates this area of the valley. Cheesden Lumb Mill ruins. Continues below:

Hi there folks, In this last one of the off season our main event is a walk through the ‘Forgotten Valley’ which is midway between Bury and Rochdale in the area known as Cheesden. The water that flowed through here provided the power for fifteen mills, and work for over two thousand people. It is completely deserted today, and the wind and rain that buffets the area has played its part in bringing about the ruination and decay of the industrial past. However, it is possible to search out some tantalising remains amongst the desolation so join me later on as we follow the full length of the valley. First though we’ll complete our look at the second half of a Midlands double-header from last October where 29 cars competed in an all-in format at Hednesford. A couple of pit notables were what looked like a new car from Andy Ford (13), and an old Danny Ward (180) car with Daz Kitson (532). Chris Burgoyne (647) made for a very welcome visitor from north of the border making only his second appearance of the season. He showed he still knows the quick way around with a second place finish to Ben Bate (161) in Heat 1. Result: 161, 647, 183, 578, 560, 618, 9, 324, NI747 and 488. Tristan Claydon (210), the long-time leader of Heat 2, was reeled in by NI747 after a superb drive through the pack battling with Luke Wrench (560). Result: NI747, 801, 560, 700, 647, 210, 488, 618, 184 and 183. Guinchy had to replace the front bumper after this one. Jamie Ward-Scott (881) built up a big lead in the Final until 210 & Ben Lockwood (618) came past as they entered the last lap. Lockwood shoved Claydon wide in the final bend with just enough force to dive up the inside for the victory. Result: 618, 210, NI747, 881, 183, 560, 578, 9, 488 and 992. Claydon made amends by winning the 24 car GN. Burgoyne received significant damage in this when at the front of a train consisting of Wrench and McKinstry. As they entered turn one Guinchy with last night’s Birmingham Wheels meeting fresh in his mind saw his opportunity to nail NI747. In went the bumper with maximum force at the same time as 560 and NI747 did likewise. Chris sustained considerable damage after being at the front of a hard hitting train. (Pic courtesy of Isa Burgoyne) A caution flag was waved to sort out the chaos. Jessica Smith (390) led off the restart a tad too quick and after winning the race was docked by the steward for jumping the start. Result: 210, 183, 390, 801, 9, 488, 560, 115, 881 and 618. Pics in the gallery Continues below:

Cheers Alan. Thankfully there's still a fair few places out there with a window to the past. I found the site of an infectious diseases hospital dating from the 1700's up on the moors a few days ago. Just a few ruins on the surface but with an underground mortuary that was still solid. They built 'em to last in those days 👍

Thank you for the updates Carl 👍

Continued from above: We now arrive at the second ventilation shaft and meet a truly bizarre and weird creation the like of which wouldn’t be out of place in a horror film. It is a huge stack of rubbish that has been thrown down the vent for near on 60yrs. It has formed a solid column from floor to roof and looks like a giant vac bag. The lower levels of it contain items no longer manufactured. There’s part of the back lights of a caravan with the old triangular reflectors, a Sunlight washing up liquid bottle, a Sunblest bread tray etc, etc. The top of the vent has been closed off recently as a new housing estate has been built above. Little do the proud owners know that they have a vent buried under their newly laid back lawn. The vent would have had the ring of bricks removed to ground level and been capped off. There is obviously going to be a time when the stack collapses as a gap has started to appear at the top within the last twelve months. There is room to squeeze past it and around the far side is a mass of soil infill resembling a swollen tongue. This has been bulldozed in from the opposite end when the houses were built. It is possible to keep going through the tunnel on top of the infill but the gap to the roof reduces so we’d end up crawling along. With the numerous large fractures in the brickwork, and the possible imminent collapse of the stack it is not worth the risk of becoming entombed within. Heading back out into the brightness and the near tropical sight of the cutting with its vines and ferns draped everywhere is a marked contrast to the cloying heavy darkness of the tunnel. The tunnel and its surroundings are a truly outstanding place to spend a few hours soaking up the atmosphere. Plenty of pics in the gallery. Next time: F2’s from Hednesford last October Bring your walking boots as we take a journey through a deserted valley to see what industrial remains survive today.

Continued from above: Around refuge 15 is a particular highlight. The back wall of the refuge looks like an alien or a ghostly face. A rock pool with the appearance of whipped cream covers the floor. Close by also at ground level is the beginning of a treacle and custard formation. The unusual colour is caused by water coming through the roof and picking up soot and iron particles from the support rings. If left undisturbed it would eventually develop into a pillar reaching to the roof. Moving on from these magnificent displays we come to a solitary wooden marker post at 340yds, followed by the first ventilation shaft at 350yds. It is 200ft up to the surface here. Extinguishing all lights we can see a circular disc projected onto the tunnel floor like a searchlight from above. The tunnel swallows up the speck of light from the tunnel mouth, so it is pitch black in all directions apart from the vent disc. Who will be standing there when we re-illuminate the area though? Will there be somebody standing in front of us with an axe or a chainsaw? A web fingered Jethro perhaps – “Look, look mother me got me some fresh meat for the gene pool” Close to here is a buffer and spring which fell off a brake van 70yrs ago and bounced into the back of a refuge. Continues below:

Continued from above: The view inside As we move further into the tunnel we come to a section where water has been dripping through the brickwork. Over the last 60-70yrs the minerals in the rock and the cement have produced some wonderful calthermic formations. The side of the tunnel is covered with white, yellow and black calcite that is hard as iron. Continues below:

Continued from above: As it used to be The scene today The tunnel portal soon comes into view and we can very carefully walk onto the parapet high above the cutting. A number of coping stones have fallen down below so it’s a case of making sure you don’t do the same! As we make our way down the 70ft high embankment we enter the land that time forgot apart from the remains of an early 1980’s Ford Fiesta engine and suspension. As we get nearer to the portal an exposed part of the tunnel drainage appears. Accessed via catchpits an overworked 12” drain runs beneath the centreline. A side channel has collapsed with the corresponding centre catchment drain uncovered. A jungle and double fence are our next obstacles to overcome. No thorns or brambles this time though. This east portal is an imposing brick structure although it looks rather lost at the end of the vast cutting. It comprises two substantial buttresses either side of the entrance and an unusually high headwall. What remains of the copings are ashlar, as is the projecting keystone. At the arch face are ten brick rings, needed to withstand the ground forces being exerted on the tunnel. Immediately beyond the portal, the lining - which necessitated the manufacture and laying of five million bricks - is in a poor condition, with short sections of sidewall having collapsed. A 12-inch square beam - formerly one of three - still straddles the tunnel between its haunches. These were used to strengthen the portal. There are some big cracks in the tunnel roof in this area. The shape of the tunnel mouth is sagging slightly with subsidence and general age. As we enter the tunnel two of the three support beams are laying at our feet. The ends have rotted through and they’ve come crashing down. The decay to the brickwork of the tunnel sides is unimaginable in this area. Extensive spalling owing to water ingress has affected it to such an extent that a single row of bricks is all that is holding the lining in place. Let’s move further in away from the huge cracks in the roof. The crown of the tunnel has additional support in the way of iron ribs linked with poling boards. However, these are not in the best of condition either with the disintegrating wood and the corroded iron. Blue engineering brick has been used throughout with repairs in red brick. The roof is black with soot in places. There are plenty of refuges some of which reveal the exposed rock behind. 100yr old tool marks can be seen on the rock. Even these have suffered the ravages of time though with a few that are crumbling and collapsing. Continues below:

Continued from above: Before we make our way to the tunnel here’s some brief background info to the railway network around the area: In 1846 the Midland Railway (MR) opened a line along the Trent valley, between Nottingham and Lincoln. The stations at Carlton and Burton Joyce are still in use, although the original buildings have gone. MR built its Leen Valley line between Nottingham and Mansfield in 1849. The station at Linby closed in 1964 and was demolished soon afterwards. The station site at Newstead is still in use, but the original buildings have gone. The Leen Valley line closed to passengers in 1964 but was retained for coal traffic. After the mines closed, this route was reopened for passengers in 1993 and is now known as the Robin Hood Line, linking Nottingham to Worksop via Newstead. In 1855, the Great Northern Railway (GNR) adopted a branch line along the Trent valley, from Grantham to Nottingham. The site of the GNR station at Netherfield is still used, although without any of the original buildings. GNR constructed a line westward from Colwick, through the hilly countryside north of Nottingham towards Derby. This line, known as the Derbyshire Extension, opened in 1875. Heading westwards, there were stations at Gedling and Daybrook. In 1878 GNR reached an agreement with the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) allowing LNWR to share Colwick yards and access to Nottingham station. Construction of the Great Northern’s Derbyshire & Staffordshire Extension was driven by a desire to exploit local coal reserves without their competitiveness suffering due to the high transportation charges imposed by the mighty Midland Railway. Thus an Act of 1872 was passed which sanctioned a disruptive new line across the city, such was the eagerness in business circles to ensure speedy progress. The Midland’s leverage diminished when the Extension’s first section opened in 1875. The chosen route might have minimised capital costs but this was still a difficult endeavour involving numerous viaducts and tunnels. Richard Johnson, the GN’s chief engineer, designed the works whilst W H Stubbs patiently fulfilled the role of resident engineer. For construction purposes, the route was split into two contracts, Joseph Firbank fulfilling the western section whilst Benton & Woodiwiss delivered the east end. To give scale to the challenge, the line demanded the excavation of two-and-three-quarter million cubic yards of rock and earth; 30 million bricks were used as well as 1,400 tons of wrought and cast iron. Mapperley at 1,132 yards, the longest of the tunnels by some distance penetrated a ridge to the north-west of Gedling, approached through a cutting 70 feet in depth which was crossed by a brick aqueduct. It was constructed in the 1870’s by sinking six shafts and working in both directions underground. Steam engines were used at each for hoisting up the spoil. This was then taken away to form a nearby embankment. Three of the shafts were subsequently retained as ventilators. Track level was 210 feet below ground at its deepest point. On 23rd January 1925, a collapse triggered by mining subsidence brought down a 12-yard section of roof, blocking the line with around 150 tons of debris. Whilst repairs were carried out, traffic was diverted along the Nottingham Suburban Railway which took a roughly parallel course further to the west. The tunnel was repaired but the continuing effects of subsidence resulted in the imposition of speed restrictions during the 1950s. The Derbyshire Extension line fell into disuse after 1960, due to the poor state of the Mapperley tunnel which was closed at this time. However, Gedling station buildings and the short length of track-bed which served Gedling colliery have all survived. In 1882 GNR opened an additional branch line through the Leen valley, to capture some of the coal traffic. The station building constructed in Bestwood Village has survived, as a private house and, in Linby, the goods weigh-house is used as Linby Heritage Centre. In 1889, the Nottingham Suburban Railway was built to link Daybrook station, via Thorneywood station, where bricks were the main goods to be dispatched, to the GNR terminus on London Road in Nottingham. Although this was a shorter route from Daybrook to Nottingham, it was expensive to maintain with deep cuttings and tunnels. After the early years of the 20th century it competed for passengers with electric tram services and closed to passengers in 1916; it was abandoned altogether in 1951. The final railway construction project in the borough was the goods line linking Bestwood Park junction (Moorbridge) in the Leen valley to the colliery at Calverton. This line opened in 1952 when the first coal was brought to the surface, and the track was lifted in 2016. The substantial volume of coal traffic generated by the railway developments led the GNR to construct a locomotive maintenance depot and marshalling yards at Colwick in 1875. The sidings, sheds, and workshops on the site were continually expanded during the following 50 years. LNWR built its own shed and housing after 1881. Colwick yards and engine sheds closed in 1970 and the site has since been cleared for redevelopment. At Colwick Yard A few facts: The yard held over 1,000 wagons Housed up to 400 locomotives It was one of the largest in the UK Coal was the main freight to pass through the yard from the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire coalfields, ready to be taken to London Almost straightaway the yard was handling over 900,000 tons of coal each year. Much of Netherfield was constructed to house the railway workers A thick yellow smog (mist mixed with engine smoke) frequently blanketed local houses By 1954, 100,000 wagons were handled each month; this then declined and after the closure of Mapperley tunnel (1960) the number halved. The yard played a major role in supporting the armed forces during WWII Okay, let’s head over to the tunnel now. We’re going to make for the far side of the park away from the main entrance. There is a path that goes right around the outer edge up against the fence. A new road is being constructed here which goes very close to the tunnel. It actually uses part of the old trackbed. On our left we’ll come to some woodland which we have to get through to reach the cutting. In here are various spoil heaps that have not become fully covered by vegetation yet. There are even some abandoned coal tubs lined up and rusting away in the undergrowth. Continues below: