A bit of an older report, but it’s prob my favourite place I have visited still. I love the old machinery that dotted the dye house., and the scale of the main mill, the boiler house being the highlight. I remember seeing Mooksters pics at the time and got in contact with him, it was when we first become friends on social media. He was really helpful with tips and that even though he did not really know me. I try to repay that faith since with tip offs when I can, and even met up a few times. So we planned a trip down to it, it’s five hours for us to get here. So we set off about one in the morning and arrived early. We done the main mill first and spent the morning there. We then moved on to the dye house and spent the afternoon inside. After we were done we went to the nearby premier inn what we had booked for the night, and went for a two for one meal at the restaurant. The weather was gorgeous both days and we done Carmel college coming home, was such a good exploring weekend.
Tonedale mill was the largest mill in the south west of England. The production of fabric there was started in 1790, with fabric produced for many customers including the British army. The factory has operated using water, steam and electric power over the years. We could still see the places were it was powered by water. At its peak the mill employed 3600 people and churning out 6,500 metres of material a day. With changes in production of fabric the mill was deemed not viable and most left to abandonment. Several proposals have been put forward for regeneration of the complex, but nothing has happened yet.
Down the road is the Tone Works, which is the dye and finishing works, This site used water wheels originally to power the machinery, and you can still see the water courses. The water was also used for the dye and treated as it came in for use through a reservoir and sluice gates. I don’t think you will see anything like this again here. It was literally like walking in an abandoned museum, and should be saved. Recent pics show that they have cleared all the overgrowth away, so maybe they are finally doing something with it.
The main mill.
The dye house.
Tonedale mill was the largest mill in the south west of England. The production of fabric there was started in 1790, with fabric produced for many customers including the British army. The factory has operated using water, steam and electric power over the years. We could still see the places were it was powered by water. At its peak the mill employed 3600 people and churning out 6,500 metres of material a day. With changes in production of fabric the mill was deemed not viable and most left to abandonment. Several proposals have been put forward for regeneration of the complex, but nothing has happened yet.
Down the road is the Tone Works, which is the dye and finishing works, This site used water wheels originally to power the machinery, and you can still see the water courses. The water was also used for the dye and treated as it came in for use through a reservoir and sluice gates. I don’t think you will see anything like this again here. It was literally like walking in an abandoned museum, and should be saved. Recent pics show that they have cleared all the overgrowth away, so maybe they are finally doing something with it.
The main mill.
The dye house.
. I wanna go back to tonedale to get some proper shots but it's so far!
