Canal and mills, Leigh
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Canal and mills, Leigh by Chris Allen as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Canal and mills, Leigh
Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 25 Jun 2016
Looking along the Bridgewater Canal towards former cotton spinning mills. On the left is Brooklands Mill. A five storey spinning mill by the Bridgewater Canal and built in 1893 with a 1200 horsepower J & E Wood mill engine that was in the projecting engine house with tall windows. Now in multiple occupancy. The chimney has been demolished. On the right is Mather Lane Mill. Now being converted to housing. This cotton spinning mill was built in 1882 to the design of Bradshaw, Gass & Hope. There is a partly internal engine house on the north elevation (facing). The engine was a very unusual beast being an 800 horsepower inverted vertical tandem compound by J & E Wood of Bolton. It had an ejector condenser and a specially built flywheel with a rim speed of 7000 feet/minute (usually about 5,000 feet per minute or nearly 60 mph). If I recall correctly it also had a parallel motion guide for the crosshead. A very interesting design for its day and I wish I had seen it.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
53.492387
Longitude
-2.507602