Building record MDR12197 - Bankwood Mill (site of), off Long Lane, Broadbottom, Charlesworth

'Bankwood Mill (Cotton)' appears on the 1st edition 25" OS map. (1) By the 2nd edition OS map, the mill is labelled as 'Bankwood Print Works' and it has a mill pond associated with it. (2) Bankswood [sic] Mill was built in 1791 by Thomas Bottomley. The mill was destroyed by fire in 1855, at which time it belonged to William Walker and Brothers and known as Botany Mill. At the turn of the century, it was owned by Yates and Kaye and was a printing and dye works. After World War I, it was bought by the United African Co. and then by Lever Brothers during the 1930s. Its decline was accentuated by the depression of the 1930s and finally it closed down as a printers and dyers in April 1941. (3) Bankwood Mill is marked on modern maps, but it is not known to what extent any buildings from the former mill survive. The current main mill building is not the same building as marked on historic mapping, but some of the associated buildings may still survive. The mill pond is still extant, as is the weir on the River Etherow. (4) William Wardlow built Bankwood in 1828, for cotton spinning and weaving. It was an extensive mill, occupying 1 acre of buildings, and was possibly built in instalments, as part-stone and part-brick. It had a weir constructed across the river with a head goit, and the machinery was eventually powered by a large water turbine. It was passed on to James William Wardlow in 1834, before ha sold it in 1848 to Ralph Waller & Company. It again changed owners to the Bankwood Spinning Company Ltd. in 1876. The mill progressed to calico printing in 1890, when it was bought by Yates and Kay. In about 1935, it became George Kay & Company. During the First World War the mill closed down. It was later occupied by Messrs E. P. Bray and Company manufacturing pigments (dyestuffs). The last known owner, in around 1953, was Messrs Keiner & Company Ltd., of Coombes Lane Works, Charlesworth, who manufactured pigments for the paint and leather trades. (5)