Scott Wilson unpublished report series

A cultural heritage assessment was carried out at Providence Mill and documentary and cartographic evidence suggested very low potential for the presence of pre-industrial archaeological deposits on the site. Geotechnical data gave no indication of buried deposits, apart from a flood defence measure prior to the construction of industrial buildings. The complex of a mid 19th century mill building associated with the production of linseed oil had been frequently expanded and altered throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries and the built heritage appraisal identified only fragmentary surviving elements of the original structures. [Au(adp)]

This project involved the archaeological recording of a 19th century integrated mill in Heywood, Rochdale, Greater Manchester. The work involved photographic recording, the production of annotated block plans, documentary research and preserves by record the historic interest of the site. Victory Works was constructed in the 1850s, and expanded rapidly throughout the following decades. By the 1890s, it displayed a plan form similar to that surviving today. At that time the site operated as an integrated spinning and weaving mill under the name ''Rose Hill Mill''. The mill complex consists of seven main structures, including the main mill building, a weaving shed, engine house, Infill building, Warehouse, North light shed and warehouse and a terraced house. The buildings are constructed in local red brick, ranging from one to three storeys in height. By the mid-20th century the mill operated as two separate concerns; Victory Works, manufacturing paper rolls on the main part of the site, and a Cotton Waste Mill to the north east. The site is presently vacant, following a fire at the site in 2007. Victory Works displays an unusual plan form for a mid- to late-19th century mill, reflecting its piecemeal development. Small in scale, it displays little technological innovation, nor architectural decoration. As such, it is a modest, if slightly unusual, example of a mill building of this date in this area.

Unity Mill was one of the last cotton mills to be erected in Heywood, shortly before the decline of the Lancashire cotton industry. Located in once open agricultural land to the southwest of Heywood, the mill comprises four red-brick buildings, including a shed (Building A), engine house (Building B), main two-storey mill building with basement (Building C), and small north-light shed (Building D). The mill closed in 1959 due to the Government''s reorganisation of the cotton industry, and was later converted to a variety of alternative uses. The site dates primarily to one phase of construction, in 1907. The original conditioning cellar and evidence for power distribution, including a rope race, wall boxes and bracket heads, survive. However, a number of alterations were made, and the site expanded beyond its historic core, when the site was converted to alternative uses from the 1960 onwards. The engine house was not accessible internally, for health and safety reasons. Its conversion to offices in the late 20th century had, however, already led to loss of internal historic integrity.