Ramsbottom Paper Mill - Ramsbottom - July 2016
Another one from my random exploration day around Bury and surrounding areas with a non-member, access was not easy, but not hard, sort of a fence then under another fence thing. But the site is very publicly visible and there is rope around the site and fences saying there is a 60 metre perimeter around the buildings because they are unsafe. Don't think it will be long before this is gone!
Ramsbottom Paper Mill, also known as Trinity and Holcombe Paper Mill was owned by James Broadbent Ingham who was born in 1815 in Bradford. James eventually entered into partnership with Joseph Hughes and Joseph Barnes at White Hall Paper Mill in Chapel-en-le-Frith between 1838 and 1848.
James then went into partnership with his brother Samual Broadbent Ingham at the Shuttleworth Paper Mill from 1848 soon building his own mill on the Irwell in Ramsbottom.
There is some slight variation over the original build date of the mill, one source providing a date of 1859 another source references 1865 and one final source gives a construction year of around 1857.
We can certainly assume that the building has been there at least the past 150 years or so.
The chimney originally stood at a height of around 46 meters constructed of brick, common for the construction period.
Prior to the demolition works, the chimney had a metal conical flue on top which would have been an additional modification towards the latter part of the twentieth century.
The purpose of this flue addition will have been to improve the performance of the chimney and to weatherproof.
Paper production was a large industry in the 19th and 20th century across Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Traditionally, the paper was made using rags and cloth, which there was a good supply of around the area due to the textile industry boom in and around Manchester. Greater Manchester is still one of the largest suppliers of paper in the whole of the UK.
When other Mills were all functioning around the area, the supply of the River Irwell became a problem, this lead to the construction of a mill race and sluice, which is still there today running down the side of the mill site.
In addition to water power, the site required coal, this was transported in using the now East Lancashire Railway line, there was even a section track directly onto the site.
The mill closed in 2008 causing around 90 job losses in the area
Although the chimney is not actually a registered building, it does fall within the Ramsbottom Conservation Area, due to this 15 meters of the chimney will be removed leaving around 30 meters remaining.
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