Monument record 2608/61 - Knight's Mill, Macclesfield

<1> Calladine A & Fricker J, 1993, East Cheshire Textile Mills, /103 (Y) (Book). SCH1093.

Silk mill built in 1853, also known as Knight Street Mill. Now demolished.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, XXXVI/12 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

<3> National Museums Liverpool, 2005, An Archaeological and Desk-Based Assessment of Park Green and Jack Lee Mills, Macclesfield (Client Report). SCH4697.

Archaeological desk-based study and walkover survey, undertaken in November 2005, for Jack Lee Mill, on the site of Knight's 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. Cawley's plan of Macclesfield of 1838 shows the mill buildings of Knight's Mill and also its reservoir which is depicted in two distinct halves. The Tithe Map of 1840 shows the site in more detail, with the outline of the building and the millpond to its north-east, again divided almost into two halves. A leat is depicted running from the pond to the southern end of the mill with what appears to be a subsiduary pond situated against the building. The accompanying apportionment list the owner of the site as Charles Knight. The Ordnance Survey Town Map of 1871 labels Knight's Mill as a silk mill and it is shown with an engine and boiler house to the east, the small pool adjacent to the south end of the building is no longer depicted, indicating that water power had been replaced by steam. The 1907 Ordnance Survey Map again depicts the site but now labels it 'Fustian Cutting Dyeing & Co Mill'.

A visit to the site on 14/10/2005 found little evidence for Knight's Mill, now demolished and replaced with factory units dating to circa 1950-60. However, the millpond and retaining bank to the north-west, at time of survey, were found to survive, though there was no evidence of the original sluices or leats.