| Abstract: |
Following the submission of a planning application for the construction of 79 dwellings and associated remediation work at the former Hoddlesden Mill, Hoddlesden, Darwen, Blackburn, Lancashire,
Greenlane Archaeology was commissioned to produce a heritage assessment. This primarily comprised examination of documentary sources, principally old maps, as well as a site visit. The heritage assessment identified the potential for archaeological remains, primarily relating to the mill, to be present, and the site visit revealed that structural elements of the main mill buildings are still evident on site, as well as ancillary structures such as reservoirs. Subsequently, Greenlane Archaeology was commissioned to carry out a programme of building recording and targeted archaeological evaluation of the site of the earliest mill buildings in order to establish the presence of any surviving structural remains.
This report details the results of the archaeological building recording, evaluation and strip, map and record carried out in July 2022. The site is located within a wider area containing remains of prehistoric and Roman date, and
Hoddlesden was, in the medieval period, a vaccary on the edge of the forest of Rossendale. However, the site is primarily of historical importance because of its connections to the textile industry. The site is a former textile mill, the origins of which are thought to have been as a calico printing works in the late
1770s, which developed into a substantial cotton mill in the middle of the 19th century, known as the Vale Rock Mill. This was enlarged with the addition of a large weaving shed and a second mill, St Paul’s, in the later 19th century. The site continued in use until the late 20th century and was badly damaged by fire in 1998 and demolished shortly afterwards.
The building recording examined four main elements: the filter beds, an area of reservoirs, a former substation, and two areas of the former mill buildings, plus a further two small reservoirs and the line of the mill leat. The evaluation targeted the line of the mill leat and a pond as depicted on the earliest
Ordnance Survey map of the area from 1849, while the strip, map and record examined the area of the former mill buildings, principally in order to examine evidence for the earliest phases of the site’s development. The evaluation across the mill leat did reveal a structure thought to relate to this, but much of the area had been later levelled with dumped ash as part of a later expansion of the site. Some traces of the mill pond were found in the other two evaluation trenches, but it had clearly been heavily truncated by later activity. A row of pads for columns supporting the weaving shed roofs were also recorded. The strip and record found walls and other features belonging to an early phase of the mill, as well as rough pads for supporting posts and a large stone-built tank. Further rows of dressed stone pads almost certainly relate to a later phase of expansion in the mid-19th century. The buildings recorded within the main mill complex seem to include some elements relating to the earliest phases, but mostly to the later periods of expansion including the addition of a tandem engine in 1911. The filter beds, reservoirs, and substation are 20th century and probably relate primarily to the installation of electric power, which also resulted in the former engine house for the 1911 engine being substantially remodelled.
While the work at Hoddlesden was not able to prove that the late 18th century calico printing works was definitely on this site, and it is entirely possible on the basis of contemporary map evidence that it was elsewhere, it has shown how the site developed during the 19th and 20th centuries. |
