IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Pinsley Mill Gardens, LEOMINSTER, HR6 8NS

This modern housing is called "Pinsley Mill Gardens", but there's barely any gardens in sight from this view... behind me though is a lot of grassland, so I guess that's where the housing development got its name from. I've got a big story to tell about my memories passing the original Pinsley Mill building before it got demolished in February 2014, but you can see that on my photographs that are only titled "Pinsley Mill (Leominster)".

Taken from the car-park at Pinsley Mill Gardens, the railway has been by Pinsley Mill since the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway line was first constructed back in 1853.

Viewed from this http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3681433 footbridge. The Welsh Marches Line is a north-south railway route from Newport in the south to Shrewsbury in the north, via Abergavenny, Hereford and Craven Arms, thus bypassing Birmingham. Part of the route is in Wales and part, as here, in England. The next station ahead is Ludlow.

These brick houses were erected at the end of the 2010s on the site of Pinsley Mill. Placed south of the houses are a number of buildings that look like recreations of the 19th century mill buildings Image

Well, well, well, look what we have here... Pinsley Mill was one of the first mills established in Leominster, and was mentioned as a "watercorne" mill in 1675. The Pinsley Brook had passed through the mill and priory at this time. During the mid 1740s, Daniel Bourn reopened this as a cotton mill, and it's been said that this is the fourth earliest cotton mill in the world. This was part of the Paul-Wyatt cotton mills, as this was built to house the roller spinning machinery. This was invented by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, and it could spin cotton "without the aid of human fingers"; the very first of its kind. The mill sadly caught fire in 1754, only 6-10 years after it reopened successfully. When the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway line opened at Leominster in 1853, the mill was brought back to life at the same time, and started to be a corn mill until the Second World War broke out. This was also a watermill during this time period too. After the Second World War, this housed several uses, such as selling food for animals (e.g. cats, dogs, birds, etc.), hairdressers (my grandmother bought a Yorkshire Terrier puppy here for free in 1986!), and much more. Sadly, when the late 2000s arrived, no-one wanted to occupy this building when the hairdressers went, and was left derelict... until suddenly in 2010, it caught on fire really bad! This repeated several times until the final time in 2013, where it struck the building horrifically. I have to mention a big memory here. In 2012, me, my brother and sister were walking home from taekwondo at Leominster Leisure Centre, until my sister decided to take us to this secret path that gave us a really good view of this derelict building... it turns out it was the roofless Pinsley Mill, which made me cry when I saw it. My sister said "Don't go in that building" and I sadly understood... it was so sad to see it in a derelict state, and that is one of the reasons why I started to get into buildings. I remember that very last fire the mill went through in 2013, and it was when I was returning from primary school back to home, and in the distance from Etnam Street was the worst fire I had ever seen (still holds up by now!). I could even see it from my (old) house, and the fire just polluted the whole sky and spread around for miles. I started to get into the building afterwards, and I passed it for the final time in January 2014... In February 2014, I wondered what happened to the building, but when my mum told me about what happened, I literally cried afterwards for so many minutes... I never even knew how at this time, I was only 9 years old, but it seemed like I knew so much about this building and I just couldn't get rid of my crying until long later. It was not until 2017, when I started to walk around Leominster for the final time from my old house. When I saw the new buildings here being constructed, I was so happy, I did not even know what to say! What's more, is that I actually saw one of the old buildings being incorporated into the new buildings! However, the modern architects decided to base their designs on the original rebuilding from the 19th century. I must say, this is the greatest modern housing development I've ever seen in the decade of the 2010s! Not just because it's in my hometown, but the fact the architects wanted to base their modern designs on the original design is just fantastic. Since October 2018, the apartments have been completed under the name "Pinsley Mill Gardens", and some apartments are still up for sale (as of this writing from 3rd February 2020).

Well, well, well, look what we have here... Pinsley Mill was one of the first mills established in Leominster, and was mentioned as a "watercorne" mill in 1675. The Pinsley Brook had passed through the mill and priory at this time. During the mid 1740s, Daniel Bourn reopened this as a cotton mill, and it's been said that this is the fourth earliest cotton mill in the world. This was part of the Paul-Wyatt cotton mills, as this was built to house the roller spinning machinery. This was invented by Lewis Paul and John Wyatt, and it could spin cotton "without the aid of human fingers"; the very first of its kind. The mill sadly caught fire in 1754, only 6-10 years after it reopened successfully. When the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway line opened at Leominster in 1853, the mill was brought back to life at the same time, and started to be a corn mill until the Second World War broke out. This was also a watermill during this time period too. After the Second World War, this housed several uses, such as selling food for animals (e.g. cats, dogs, birds, etc.), hairdressers (my grandmother bought a Yorkshire Terrier puppy here for free in 1986!), and much more. Sadly, when the late 2000s arrived, no-one wanted to occupy this building when the hairdressers went, and was left derelict... until suddenly in 2010, it caught on fire really bad! This repeated several times until the final time in 2013, where it struck the building horrifically. I have to mention a big memory here. In 2012, me, my brother and sister were walking home from taekwondo at Leominster Leisure Centre, until my sister decided to take us to this secret path that gave us a really good view of this derelict building... it turns out it was the roofless Pinsley Mill, which made me cry when I saw it. My sister said "Don't go in that building" and I sadly understood... it was so sad to see it in a derelict state, and that is one of the reasons why I started to get into buildings. I remember that very last fire the mill went through in 2013, and it was when I was returning from primary school back to home, and in the distance from Etnam Street was the worst fire I had ever seen (still holds up by now!). I could even see it from my (old) house, and the fire just polluted the whole sky and spread around for miles. I started to get into the building afterwards, and I passed it for the final time in January 2014... In February 2014, I wondered what happened to the building, but when my mum told me about what happened, I literally cried afterwards for so many minutes... I never even knew how at this time, I was only 9 years old, but it seemed like I knew so much about this building and I just couldn't get rid of my crying until long later. It was not until 2017, when I started to walk around Leominster for the final time from my old house. When I saw the new buildings here being constructed, I was so happy, I did not even know what to say! What's more, is that I actually saw one of the old buildings being incorporated into the new buildings! However, the modern architects decided to base their designs on the original rebuilding from the 19th century. I must say, this is the greatest modern housing development I've ever seen in the decade of the 2010s! Not just because it's in my hometown, but the fact the architects wanted to base their modern designs on the original design is just fantastic. Since October 2018, the apartments have been completed under the name "Pinsley Mill Gardens", and some apartments are still up for sale (as of this writing from 3rd February 2020).

Taken from the car-park at Pinsley Mill Gardens, the railway has always been by Pinsley Mill since the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway line was first constructed all the way back in 1853.

This modern housing is called "Pinsley Mill Gardens", but there's barely any gardens in sight from this view... behind me though is a lot of grassland, so I guess that's where the housing development got its name from. I've got a big story to tell about my memories passing the original Pinsley Mill building before it got demolished in February 2014, but you can see that on my photographs that are only titled "Pinsley Mill (Leominster)".

Here is the site of Pinsley Mill, one of the world's earliest cotton mills. The site is now occupied by modern housing that honours the previous buildings on the site from the 19th century. I wrote my memoirs of the site in the caption of this photo Image