IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
West Ashton Road, TROWBRIDGE, BA14 7BJ

Trowbridge is a curate's egg of a town, this is one of the good bits. It is not all like this. For the other side of the coin see Image]

Trowbridge as a town was always functional rather than pretty, but it once had a certain charm. The uglification process began in the 1950's and is now well under way. This is the inner ring road, less than one third of it has been completed. Tesco's Super Store is off to the right and one of the old woollen mills is on the left.

The stone built single storey, north-light weaving sheds.

Five storey stone mill with adjoining stone built weaving sheds and a brick engine house. Dates from 1860 and in the textile trade until 1963. This view shows the five storey block that is Grade II Listed.

Five storey stone mill with adjoining stone built weaving sheds and a brick engine house. Dates from 1860 and in the textile trade until 1963.

The rain wasn't friendly to photography and meant changing to the small camera to keep it off the lens. You can just see the Magnet store on the right.

Five storey stone mill with adjoining stone built weaving sheds and a brick engine house. Dates from 1860 and in the textile trade until 1963. This view shows the stone built north-light weaving shed. The multi-storey block is Grade II Listed.

The distinctive outline of the Ashton Mills buildings along County Way. Built in the mid-nineteenth century and now Grade II listed, they have a number of small offices and industrial businesses occupying the site.

Being floodplain most developers have left this area alone and it has now become a small but pleasant oasis for those living in the new developments around it. That is, if one can ignore the dumped trolleys, carrier bags and other wrapping litter, for immediately behind the photographer is the Tesco's car park with recycling facility.

Five storey stone mill with adjoining stone built weaving sheds and a brick engine house. Dates from 1860 and in the textile trade until 1963. This view shows the multi-storey block to the left and the sheds to the right with the apparent engine house in the middle. The booklet Power in the Trowbridge Woollen Industry by K H Rogers describes several sources of power for this mill complex and shows some confusing pictures (one referring to a vertical engine as a beam engine). The book refers to the first engine as being a twin beam engine by Hadens and of 60 horsepower. In 1908 these were replaced by an 80 horsepower Crossley gas engine and a 120 horsepower Tangye tandem compound steam engine. In 1933 the Tangye was replaced by a Davey, Paxman patent Peache two crank compound engine. This drove both a generator and lineshafting in the weaving shed.