Durban Mill, Hollinwood

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 6 Aug 2006

This mill was built in 1905 by the Durban Mill Co Ltd. The architect was PS Stott and its 120,000 spindles were powered by a magnificent Yates & Thom horizontal four cylinder triple expansion engine of 1750 horsepower. The mill ceased production in 1962 and was re-occupied in 1967 as a mail order warehouse. There is a new housing development on the site now. George Watkins took a superb photograph of the engine and published in The Stationary Steam Engine, David & Charles, 1968. The cylinders all had Corliss valves, the high pressure was 28" bore, the intermediate pressure 39" bore and the two low pressure cylinders 43" bore all with a stroke of 5'. The flywheel was about 26' diameter (a typical size) and grooved for 38 cotton driving ropes that sent power to all floors of the mill. The engine took steam at 180 pounds per square inch from four Lancashire boilers, ran at about 72 revolutions per minute and was apparently overloaded up to 2200 horsepower on occasion. It was a long engine with ample space between the cylinders and the air pumps operated by piston tail rods behind the engine. The chimney just appearing over the main mill building is the truncated chimney on Brook No. 2 Mill. That mill has also been demolished.

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