Building record 2598/7/0 - Lowerhouse Mill

Built in 1818 by George Antrobus as a water powered cotton mill. Distinguished from the neighbouring mills by its fireproof structure, including iron sheet clad roof trusses. Taken over in 1832 by Samuel Greg, who added a fireproof engine and boiler house at the opposite end of the mill to the cast iron water wheel. Badly damaged by fire in 1835, caused by the gas lamps used to light the cotton store (1). The property bought by Greg included the mill, the mill manager's house, 50 cottages, 100 acres of meadow and the Mount, a "handsome dwelling house". Greg refurbished the cottages, after evicting the tenants, and divided the meadow into allotments, as well as providing a Sunday School and Library, to convert his workforce to the moral outlook and attitude of his own class (2). After bad debts and strikes, Greg died a broken man. ECTMS 131(1). Hammer dressed sandstone, with an asbestos roof. The core of the mill has a 4-storey symmetrical 23 bay (11:1:11) east front, with 12 pane windows under plain stone lintels. Central bay is a projecting staircase tower under a stone-coped gable with windows in thesides and a clock face on the south and east. To the right is a 2-storey, former water turbine house. To the left is a 4- storey, 2-bay beam engine house with semi-circular headed windows served by 2 1-storey boiler houses. Inside, the mill is divided by 2 lines of plain cast-iron columns supporting cast-iron beams and low brick arches (3).

<1> Calladine A & Fricker J, 1993, East Cheshire Textile Mills, /51-4,157-9 (Y) (Book). SCH1093.

<2> Greg S, 1875, A Layman's Legacy (Book). SCH98.

<3> Department of the Environment, 1971-2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, /2 (Report). SCH1934.

<4> Ashmore, O, 1982, The Industrial Archaeology of North West England, /30 (Book). SCH3181.