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

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 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.

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 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.

A partial ring road around the town centre.

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 and the brick built structure that I think was the engine house and boiler house complex. The chimney is long gone.

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.

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.