HINCHLIFFE MILL - HOLMEBRIDGE
HISTORY
Situated just up the road from Holmfirth, home to the BBC series Last of the Summer Wine, the former woollen mill at Holmbridge appears to have been vacant for some time.
There is very little history about the mill; the original mill at Hinchliffe dates back to 1832; with the larger mill being established in 1932. All buildings are more or less totally stripped out and unfortunately there’s not much to see; the upper floor of the office block has been burnt out, it is however a nice easy explore.
The mill buildings are listed and are to be developed into housing, as they are situated in a conservation area it should be a sympathetic development? I have to say other new builds in the area blend in well with the older buildings.
An interesting bit of history which involved the mill was the great (or not so great) flood of 1852, 25 people just in Hinchliffe perished, 81 in total down the Holme Valley. The 1852 flood occurred when the embankment of the Bilberry reservoir collapsed, releasing 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme. It caused 81 deaths and a large amount of damage to property in the valley leaving many homeless and without work. The buildings and structures destroyed included four mills, ten dye houses, three drying stoves, 27 cottages, seven tradesmen’s houses, seven shops, seven bridges crossing the River Holme, ten warehouses, eight barns and stables.
The collapse occurred at about 1.00am on the 5 February 1852 following a period of heavy rain. The story of the flood made the front page of the London Standard newspaper.
An inquest after the disaster concluded that the reservoir was "defective in its original construction" and that "the Commissioners, in permitting the Bilberry reservoir to remain in a dangerous state with the full knowledge thereof, and not lowering the waste pit, have been guilty of great and culpable negligence".
REPORT
My visit
I saw the mill while driving past and thought it was worth a mooch, as I entered the first building and got my camera out I suddenly realised I had made a very basic error; my SD card was still in the computer at home, a rummage around my bag thankfully found a huge 64MB card I had found on a beach. RAW files were out the question as the camera said the card was full even after formatting it, I dropped the file size until I could take 28 images, a part of me was relieved to find the buildings empty otherwise I'd have been kicking myself all the way home for another SD card!
The upper floor of the first building I entered, roofs off and floor's a bit rotten.
I then wandered into the main mill building, a staircase took me up to the upper floor.
The empty open upper floor.
From here I couldn't find access into the lower floors so wandered accross to the office/administration building. Not too much here and the upper floor is burnt out.
Loved the decor in this room
The charcoaled stairs to the upper floor, I gave it a miss.
From here I crossed to a newer part of the mill; again a huge empty space.
I retraced my footsteps to have a quick look at getting into the lower floors, I had obviously had my eyes shut earlier as I was soon in. Again it was just empty space with the odd clump of wool stuck to the floor.
I eventually ended up in what would have been the maintenance department
Well that's it! An easy explore, but with not much to see except for the structure of the buildings.
HISTORY
Situated just up the road from Holmfirth, home to the BBC series Last of the Summer Wine, the former woollen mill at Holmbridge appears to have been vacant for some time.
There is very little history about the mill; the original mill at Hinchliffe dates back to 1832; with the larger mill being established in 1932. All buildings are more or less totally stripped out and unfortunately there’s not much to see; the upper floor of the office block has been burnt out, it is however a nice easy explore.
The mill buildings are listed and are to be developed into housing, as they are situated in a conservation area it should be a sympathetic development? I have to say other new builds in the area blend in well with the older buildings.
An interesting bit of history which involved the mill was the great (or not so great) flood of 1852, 25 people just in Hinchliffe perished, 81 in total down the Holme Valley. The 1852 flood occurred when the embankment of the Bilberry reservoir collapsed, releasing 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme. It caused 81 deaths and a large amount of damage to property in the valley leaving many homeless and without work. The buildings and structures destroyed included four mills, ten dye houses, three drying stoves, 27 cottages, seven tradesmen’s houses, seven shops, seven bridges crossing the River Holme, ten warehouses, eight barns and stables.
The collapse occurred at about 1.00am on the 5 February 1852 following a period of heavy rain. The story of the flood made the front page of the London Standard newspaper.
An inquest after the disaster concluded that the reservoir was "defective in its original construction" and that "the Commissioners, in permitting the Bilberry reservoir to remain in a dangerous state with the full knowledge thereof, and not lowering the waste pit, have been guilty of great and culpable negligence".
REPORT
My visit
I saw the mill while driving past and thought it was worth a mooch, as I entered the first building and got my camera out I suddenly realised I had made a very basic error; my SD card was still in the computer at home, a rummage around my bag thankfully found a huge 64MB card I had found on a beach. RAW files were out the question as the camera said the card was full even after formatting it, I dropped the file size until I could take 28 images, a part of me was relieved to find the buildings empty otherwise I'd have been kicking myself all the way home for another SD card!
The upper floor of the first building I entered, roofs off and floor's a bit rotten.
I then wandered into the main mill building, a staircase took me up to the upper floor.
The empty open upper floor.
From here I couldn't find access into the lower floors so wandered accross to the office/administration building. Not too much here and the upper floor is burnt out.
Loved the decor in this room
The charcoaled stairs to the upper floor, I gave it a miss.
From here I crossed to a newer part of the mill; again a huge empty space.
I retraced my footsteps to have a quick look at getting into the lower floors, I had obviously had my eyes shut earlier as I was soon in. Again it was just empty space with the odd clump of wool stuck to the floor.
I eventually ended up in what would have been the maintenance department
Well that's it! An easy explore, but with not much to see except for the structure of the buildings.
