Source/Archive record SCH8947 - Historic Building Investigation: Lindow Moss Peat Farm, Moor Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire East

A building record (Level 2) was produced in 2020 for a 20th-century building formerly used for processing peat extracted from the adjacent Lindow Moss. The study was carried out in support of proposed re-development of the site including demolition of the building and construction of housing. The study concluded that the two-storey, brick-built structure was erected on an undeveloped plot in circa 1960 to process the peat extracted from Lindow Moss. The interior originally comprised an open, roofed platform with a large loading bay protected by massive timber doors on the east side. Three small extensions were added to the building prior to 1970, and a narrow-gauge railway was built to transport peat from the moss to the building for processing. This is believed to have been the last working peat railway in Britain, although no visible remains survived at the time of the survey; three locomotives, several wagons and other railway equipment were recovered by the Moseley Rail Trust and transferred to the Apedale Railway Centre at Newcastle-under- Lyme in June 2020. Whilst the building contained very little in the way of fixtures and fittings to demonstrate the precise nature of the processes that were undertaken, the project has enabled a review of the limited documentary material available to be combined with the physical evidence embedded in the historic fabric to produce a detailed narrative of the building’s development.