A small, empty, but previously unrecorded mill I did while wading down the river through Burnley.
History copied from the internet, probably from a book called Burnley Cotton Mills by Jack Nadin.
“Cuckoo Mill on Blackburn Street, is probably Burnley's oldest surviving mill in its original form, and was originally built as a cotton-spinning mill, also known as 'Calder Street Mill'.
A Brewer, named John Hargreaves, first built the mill in 1833, when it was run by a vertical engine with beams, connecting rods and drums, all of which were made of timber.
The mill's location besides the River Calder was deliberate, the water being drawn off to feed the boilers of the engine.
Cuckoo Mill was closed down during the Cotton Famine of 1862-64, failing through the outdated machinery and the effects of the famine itself.
Cuckoo Mill is built four storeys high, with four loading bay windows on the left, and two on the right.
On the gable end wall at the Royle Road end of the building, can be seen the height of the former buildings that used to run up the rest of Blackburn Street, the houses of Robert Varley and Ambrose Wilson in the 1920s.
The area behind the main mill used now, as the scrap yard was the Royle Foundry, a brass works. But John Crook built a spinning mill here along with a foundry about 1800.
The mill was later used as a weaving shed, a bakery and then the foundry. Look also for the stable accommodation on the river side of the building, and the middle wooden bar evidently chewed away by a restless horse.
For many years from the late 1890s, the mill was worked under Stephen Murphy being run as a marine store. By the 1920s, the mill had been taken over by Wallace Reader, and used as a 'marine store' and continues under the Reader’s name to this day."
There is another description of the outside in the listing, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1022629.
Historic England says the extension on the end beside the river was an engine house.
I suppose it could have been but it looked more like stables with lightweight floors above for storage.
Inside pictures are ordered upwards.
The basement has been modernised at some stage and may have been last used as a garage, with a couple of inches of oily water on the floor - just as well I was in waders.
Nothing on the ground floor except junk and some old tyres - a rummage yielded no treasure.
The first and second floor were more empty spaces.
The scrap people who own the mill may have have accidentally created the hole in the back wall.
Ropes and pulleys above a haulage bay suggested there could still be a hoist in the attic, and indeed there was a fairly early electrically powered one along with a section of line shafting.
The roof looks like it was redone within the last few decades.
Buildings of similar vintage nearby have been demolished recently - this one is still standing (just) probably because it’s listed.
A final picture from back down in the river.
History copied from the internet, probably from a book called Burnley Cotton Mills by Jack Nadin.
“Cuckoo Mill on Blackburn Street, is probably Burnley's oldest surviving mill in its original form, and was originally built as a cotton-spinning mill, also known as 'Calder Street Mill'.
A Brewer, named John Hargreaves, first built the mill in 1833, when it was run by a vertical engine with beams, connecting rods and drums, all of which were made of timber.
The mill's location besides the River Calder was deliberate, the water being drawn off to feed the boilers of the engine.
Cuckoo Mill was closed down during the Cotton Famine of 1862-64, failing through the outdated machinery and the effects of the famine itself.
Cuckoo Mill is built four storeys high, with four loading bay windows on the left, and two on the right.
On the gable end wall at the Royle Road end of the building, can be seen the height of the former buildings that used to run up the rest of Blackburn Street, the houses of Robert Varley and Ambrose Wilson in the 1920s.
The area behind the main mill used now, as the scrap yard was the Royle Foundry, a brass works. But John Crook built a spinning mill here along with a foundry about 1800.
The mill was later used as a weaving shed, a bakery and then the foundry. Look also for the stable accommodation on the river side of the building, and the middle wooden bar evidently chewed away by a restless horse.
For many years from the late 1890s, the mill was worked under Stephen Murphy being run as a marine store. By the 1920s, the mill had been taken over by Wallace Reader, and used as a 'marine store' and continues under the Reader’s name to this day."
There is another description of the outside in the listing, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1022629.
Historic England says the extension on the end beside the river was an engine house.
I suppose it could have been but it looked more like stables with lightweight floors above for storage.
Inside pictures are ordered upwards.
The basement has been modernised at some stage and may have been last used as a garage, with a couple of inches of oily water on the floor - just as well I was in waders.
Nothing on the ground floor except junk and some old tyres - a rummage yielded no treasure.
The first and second floor were more empty spaces.
The scrap people who own the mill may have have accidentally created the hole in the back wall.
Ropes and pulleys above a haulage bay suggested there could still be a hoist in the attic, and indeed there was a fairly early electrically powered one along with a section of line shafting.
The roof looks like it was redone within the last few decades.
Buildings of similar vintage nearby have been demolished recently - this one is still standing (just) probably because it’s listed.
A final picture from back down in the river.
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