IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Burnden Industrial Estate, Manchester Road, BOLTON, BL3 2NG

Seen from the shed yard LMS 5MT 4-6-0 45096 heads south with a parcels train. Bolton locomotive shed didn't quite last to the end of steam traction but was one of the last 6 steam sheds. Closure came on 1st July 1968, so 6 weeks before the end. The shed & yard area has now entirely been given over to a residential development which the map tells me is called 'The Sheddings'!

This chimney was built by the late Fred Dibnah on the house where he once lived with his parents.

Formerly the site of Bolton Wanderers

Bolton locomotive shed didn't quite last to the end of steam traction but was one of the last 6 steam sheds. Closure came on 1st July 1968, so 6 weeks before the end. Here LMS 8F 2-8-0 48692 (l) & LMS 5MT 4-6-0 44947 (r) await their next duties. In the background is Bee Hive Mill No. 1.

Bolton locomotive shed didn't quite last to the end of steam traction but was one of the last 6 steam sheds. Closure came on 1st July 1968, so 6 weeks before the end. Here, outside the shed, LMS 8F 2-8-0 48692 (r) & LMS 5MT 4-6-0 44947 (l) await their next duties. The shed & yard area has now entirely been given over to a residential development which the map tells me is called 'The Sheddings'!

Two large cotton spinning mills. No. 1 on the right was built in 1895 and retains its engine house while No. 2 on the left was built in 1902 and retains a severely truncated chimney with a modern stack up its centre. In their day these were the largest spinning mills in the world. This view largely shows No. 1 mill with part of No. 2 and its chimney on the left. The No. 1 engine house has featured on urban exploration websites and contains a very large water tank to supply the firefighting system that includes diesel driven pumps in part of the engine house. The engine was a Hick, Hargreaves of Bolton horizontal twin tandem triple expansion engine of about 2000 horsepower. The mill closed and the engine was stopped in about 1956. The No. 2 mill ran until 1970 but I do not know when the engine stopped. The No. 2 mill engine house had been demolished when I took this photograph. Bee Hive Mills were demolished in the second half of 2019 and new houses are being built on the site. This photograph was taken from a United Utilities car park that has also been demolished and that site also cleared.

This is one end of a pair of large cotton spinning mills that were then operated as a distribution centre by Home Delivery Network. This is the 1895 built No. 1 mill with the office block/entrance lodge on the right. There was an excellent view of the site across the railway from a United Utilities site and the security guard there let me in one August Saturday. When I had finished he suggested I go back and do it again from the top of the multistorey car park. I was very grateful. I could not repeat that again because both Bee Hive Mills and the United Utilites site have been demolished.