Monument record 1109/9/1 - Site of Brook Mill

<1> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey 1:2500, Sht 50/5,6,9&10 1873 (Maps and Plans). SCH2429.

Brook Mill is one of two silk mills which are shown on the Ordnance Survey First Edition map of 1873.

<2> Ormerod, G., 1882, The History of the County Palatine and City of Chester, Ormerod G 1882 3/98 (Book). SCH1389.

The silk industry was an important economic element of the town during the 19th century.

<3> Various, Cheshire History, 17/27-33 Bott O J P 1986 (Journal/Periodical). SCH811.

Watermill site at Sandbach which had been a silk mill but appears to have been a cornmill on the 1840 Tithe Map (EDT 351).

<4> Calladine A & Fricker J, 1993, East Cheshire Textile Mills, /164 ECTMS 230 (Y) (Book). SCH1093.

<5> Aeon Archaeology, 2019, Land at Old Mill Road, Sandbach, Cheshire, CW11 1FU: Archaeological Strip, Map and Record, R4632 (Client Report). SCH9287.

An archaeological strip, map and record excavation was undertaken in 2019 on the site of the former Brook Mill, Old Mill Road, Sandbach, Cheshire prior to re-development of the site. The evaluation uncovered the preserved remains of below ground services (drainage) associated with the former Brook Mill site. Due to the presence of modern utilities the excavation area was limited to a 12.5m by 6.5m area which the stratigraphic and cartographic evidence would suggest lay between the south-eastern part of the main mill building and the later southern range constructed between 1849 and 1873-4. This revealed what is most likely the external wall of the mill building at the north-eastern limit of the excavation, and the external wall of the range at the south-western limit. The excavation also revealed two red-brick cylindrical pipes, one of which was of 1.4m diameter, as well as a salt-glazed pipe, iron pipe, brick surface, levelling deposits and concrete slab. The stratigraphic sequence revealed by the excavation has determined the order in which these features were constructed and tentative time periods attributed ranging from the mid-19th to mid-20th century.