Site Event/Activity record ECH4174 - An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment of Park Green and Jack Lee Mills, Macclesfield.

Archaeological desk-based study and walkover survey, undertaken in November 2005, for Jack Lee Mill and Park Green Mill, Macclesfield. The Domesday survey cites Macclesfield as one of two large estates in the Hamestan Hundred, the other being Adlington. The estate included land for ten ploughs, a mill, a hall, woodland and meadows. The manor house was situated to the south-west of the town and associated to it was a deer park. The location of the manorial mill is not clear, though the Sutton in Prestbury map of 1787 records 'Big Mill ' and 'Little Mill' fields in the area of Park Green, another potential location is the Brunswick Street area to the north. The dominant industry in Macclesfield between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries was silk throwing and weaving. Readily available sources of water power, a cool, damp climate and poor land not conducive to an agricultural economy, and sources of coal for later steam-powered factories, were all contributory factors. Button manufacturing is documented in Macclesfield from 1574 and this developed into manufacture of silk buttons by the seventeenth century. The study found that the Jack Lee Mill site occupied the former site of Knight's Mill, a water-powered silk mill constructed during the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Whilst nothing survives above ground of Knight's Mill, it is possible that some remains survive below ground. Park Green Mill was one of the earliest powered silk mills established in Macclesfield, being founded by Daintry and Ryle sometime before 1785. It was also one of the earliest to convert to steam power, an engine being installed to supplement the waterwheel in the 1790's. The engine was replaced or supplemented by a new engine in the early nineteenth century. Whilst these buildings were demolished in a fire in 1976 it is likely that significant remains associated with the waterwheel, engine and boiler houses survive below ground. Evidence of other early industrial buildings may survive across the site. In addition to the below ground remains, Park Green Mill is a listed building and is situated in a conservation area. (1)