Building record 2902/2 - Handforth Print Works

<1> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, EDT 184/2a, 1844 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

This map depicts a large complex of buildings with three large pools to the immediate east. The plot is described as print works, cottages, yards, reservoir, roads, etc. and is recorded as being occupied by Symonds Cuncliffe and Co.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ8682, 1874 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

This map depicts a large complex of buildings including two buildings labelled as tanks and a gasometer on the western side of the buildings. There is a large complex of pools, mill dams, weirs etc. to the immediate east. Labelled Handforth Print Works.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ8682, 1897 (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.

This map depicts a large complex of buildings including two buildings labelled as tanks and a gasometer on the western side of the buildings. There is a large complex of pools, mill dams, weirs etc. to the immediate east. Labelled Handforth Print Works.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1909-1912, Ordnance Survey Second Revision County Series (Epoch 3) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ8682, 1909 (Maps and Plans). SCH4361.

The largest of the building complexes on the eastern side of the site have been demolished, though two chimneys have been retained. The print works is labelled as disused.

<5> Newsquest (North West), Various, Knutsford Guardian, 12/10/2015 (Newspaper-Magazine). SCH7430.

In November 1914, the printworks buildings of Handforth were converted into an internment camp for prisoners of war, though the main camp complex lay to the south of the former print works.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1936-1937, Ordnance Survey Third Revision County Series (Epoch 4) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ8682, 1935 (Maps and Plans). SCH9033.

All the original buildings have been demolished. A new building occupies the western part of the site which is labelled Dura Works.

<7> University of Chester, Diverse Narratives of WWI: Minority Experiences in Cheshire, 1914-1918, https://diversenarratives.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/handforth-concentration-prison/ (Web Site). SCH9034.

Symonds, Cunliffe and Co. added four very large sheds to their Handforth operations with the aim of expanding output of the Print Works. These still lay empty in 1914 and at the outbreak of war the local Army Command planned to turn them into barracks for the two thousand men of the Third and Fourth Battalions of the Manchester Regiment. However, the War Office intervened and decided they should be used as a internement camp. Symonds Cuncliffe and Co. were calico printers.