Wading down another East Lancs cotton valley - the red lines on the map below are culverts totalling about 1 km in length.
The original aim was to find a hydraulic ram just off the top of the map and then have a look at any water-related remains further downstream. Many of the mills that originally lined the river have gone and there wasn’t a lot to see.
A couple of the Rawtenstall culverts have been reported before: https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threa...r-limy-rawtenstall-lancashire-may-2009.40290/
Pictures are a mixture of phone and camera.
Starting near a former reservoir at the top of Folly Clough, which joins the River Limy, the ram used to be down the valley on the left.
There was a sunken brick chamber under some rocks at the location, but it was empty - never mind, there are plenty of other rams still left in Lancs.
Going down the clough past the site of a former mill we come to a falling-down bridge…
…and then to a small brick tunnel which turns to stone and then to a plastic pipe.
The culvert starts up again just beyond some houses, but it had a debris screen so I did it from the other end.
Which was a mistake - it soon shrank to under 4 ft - the pic below is looking upstream towards an open section.
So I headed gratefully out again back to the Limy.
The next culvert downstream was also rather low and had some weed-smoking locals loitering nearby so I gave that a miss and instead looked at some old waterworks immediately after it.
This sluice…
…seems to have diverted water into a filter tank, now filled in, under the tree on the left.
This may have been to purify water for one of the mills further downstream.
Next a short culvert under the site of a former mill (Holmes Mill)…
…and a series of weirs more to do with control of river flow than water power - I walked round most of these.
This is last one, looking upstream.
Then another culvert under part of Rawtenstall, pics taken looking both forward and backwards.
…emerging next to a former fire station.
continued
The original aim was to find a hydraulic ram just off the top of the map and then have a look at any water-related remains further downstream. Many of the mills that originally lined the river have gone and there wasn’t a lot to see.
A couple of the Rawtenstall culverts have been reported before: https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threa...r-limy-rawtenstall-lancashire-may-2009.40290/
Pictures are a mixture of phone and camera.
Starting near a former reservoir at the top of Folly Clough, which joins the River Limy, the ram used to be down the valley on the left.
There was a sunken brick chamber under some rocks at the location, but it was empty - never mind, there are plenty of other rams still left in Lancs.
Going down the clough past the site of a former mill we come to a falling-down bridge…
…and then to a small brick tunnel which turns to stone and then to a plastic pipe.
The culvert starts up again just beyond some houses, but it had a debris screen so I did it from the other end.
Which was a mistake - it soon shrank to under 4 ft - the pic below is looking upstream towards an open section.
So I headed gratefully out again back to the Limy.
The next culvert downstream was also rather low and had some weed-smoking locals loitering nearby so I gave that a miss and instead looked at some old waterworks immediately after it.
This sluice…
…seems to have diverted water into a filter tank, now filled in, under the tree on the left.
This may have been to purify water for one of the mills further downstream.
Next a short culvert under the site of a former mill (Holmes Mill)…
…and a series of weirs more to do with control of river flow than water power - I walked round most of these.
This is last one, looking upstream.
Then another culvert under part of Rawtenstall, pics taken looking both forward and backwards.
…emerging next to a former fire station.
continued
