IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Meadow Villas, Greenfield Road, HOLYWELL, CH8 7QJ

A view looking north over the southern section of the Flour Mill pond in the Greenfield Valley Heritage Park. See http://www.greenfieldvalley.com for more information.

This is a former copper rolling mill dating back to 1787 and used for supplying copper plate for sheathing ships' bottoms, among other uses. It was powered by a water wheel and the remains of a leat can be seen between two buttresses on the dam that is supporting the photographer. There is also a picturesque overflow weir. This is one of several ruins preserved along the valley and is well worth a visit.

At one time this was a lead rolling mill.

At one time this was a lead rolling mill.

The ruins here and elsewhere nearby are extensive. This little sloping valley was industrialised in the 1700's with a densely packed concentration of entrepreneurial industries by the 1770's that included manufacturing batteries, shaping copper pots and pans for shipment worldwide, rolling mills, flour mills, cotton mills and wire mills making copper and brass wire. Every remaining brick here could be said to represent a life; a child worker, a cotton worker, the recipients of an industrial accident, a life cut short by long hours labouring for a pittance - or conversely an opportunist who through hard work and the courage of their convictions may have made the world a slightly better place, for themselves and others near and far, however briefly.

This is the overflow weir from the pond that supplied Meadow Mill's water wheel. The bridge leads you on to the massive dam.

Part of the Greenfield Valley Heritage trail. Here it crosses the weir.

I am obliged to fellow geographer John Turner who after 5 years was able to enlighten me as to the significance of this sign. Dated 1934, this post defines the boundary of land once owned by the Grosvenor Chater company, in the Greenfield Valley Heritage Park. Grosvenor Chater were a London paper making company who acquired the nearby Abbey Mill in 1854. The mill closed in 1982 and the company was dissolved in 1992. There is more information about the company https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/dab28981-19ef-31db-890f-d3beb0bc7223?component=6fcd729f-3920-35f9-8b17-56227289a0fe

Looking southwest across one of the mill ponds in the Greenfield Valley Heritage Park, towards Bryn Celyn.

Looking northeast along the trackbed of the Holywell branch railway line. This is now a footpath through the Greenfield Valley Heritage Park. When I was a youngster, there was a footbridge at this location, carrying the pedestrian path from the slope at left over the railway and down to the path at right.