Monument record MDR504 - Cadster Mill, Chapel Road, Whaley Bridge
Type and Period (6)
Protected Status/Designation
- None recorded
Full Description
Cadster Mill on Carr Brook between Horwich End and Tunstead Milton. Stone with a stone roof. Mill race 190m long. Earliest record 1701; 1717 worked as a tannery and a barytes mill. In 1857 it was a paint works, and in 1902 it was a dairy. (1, 2)
Cadster Mill today [in 1968] is used as a barn and is in a bad state of repair, but in the past it covered a large area of an adjoining field where there were also stables and workmen's cottages. It was originally a corn mill, worked by water power via a long mill race. The water was extracted some 200 yards upstream. The earliest known record at present is from 1701, when the owners of the Ollerenshaw estate sold the mill to the Shallcross family of Shallcross Hall. In 1717 the mill was worked by Francis Thomasson, tanner and barytes manufacturer. The mill was still with the family in 1829, as there is a reference to 'John Thomasson, tanner for Cadster'. By 1846 it was in use as a paint works and by 1857 had a 16 HP steam engine. A directory of 1858 also refers to barytes manufacturers at the site. In 1895 it was still used as a paint and barytes works. The barytes was obtained from the Perryfoot area and carted by horses which were stabled in the large stables at the side of the mill. Coal from a nearby coalmine (Drum & Monkey Pit) was carried in the opposite direction. By 1902 the mill was the 'Combs & High Peak Dairy. For a while, the mill was a laundry, using the water from a pure spring running beneath the building. In about 1920 it became a garage and by the 1950s was in use as a barn. In 1958 a tractor fell through the concrete floor into a pit. This was found to be a tanning pit, the timbering of which was perfectly preserved. Alongside the pit was a stone sough, carrying pure spring water. There are said to have been several tanning pits but the stone work and timbering were supposedly removed and sold in the 1920s or 1930s. Prior to that the stone from the stables and part of the mill was sold for the building of a house at Cockyard, known as "Greyfriars". (3)
This mill can be traced back to 1701 and was operated by water taken in a long leat from a weir on the nearby Randal Carr Brook, a tributary of the River Goyt at Whaley Bridge. By 1857 it had become a paint works and then later a dairy. Its location is now covered by a modern housing development. (4)
Only two buildings remain from the original complex of at least nine buildings. The walls are constructed of roughly coursed limestone. The main mill building, possibly the original tannery, which was fully open along the eastern elevation, has been blocked up and now comprises an open-plan rectangular structure divided into four bays by four king-post trusses. Originally the building extended further north by at least one more bay. The smaller building may originally have been the paint works or the bagging and distribution end of the barytes production. It is now single storey, but may once have had two or more storeys. The condition of both surviving buildings has been recorded prior to restoration and conversion into an artist's studio and residential accommodation. (5)
Sources/Archives (5)
- <1> SDR10000 Index: North Derbyshire Archaeological Trust (NDAT). North Derbyshire Archaeological Trust Index. 2030.
- <2> SDR19111 Index: Council for British Archaeology (CBA). CBA Industrial Archaeology Report Card. 18/9/1970.
- <3> SDR3193 Bibliographic reference: Bellhouse, M A. 1968. 'The Story of Combs My Village', Derbyshire Miscellany. Vol. 6. pp 198-199.
- <4> SDR19066 Bibliographic reference: Gifford, A. 1999. Derbyshire Watermills: Corn Mills.. A13, p31.
- <5> SDR21049 Unpublished document: Harwood, B. 2009. Cadster Mill, Chapel Road, Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire. An Historic Recording and Condition Report..
Map
Location
| Grid reference | Centred SK 023 800 (82m by 61m) (Multiple Site Centre) |
|---|---|
| Civil Parish | WHALEY BRIDGE, HIGH PEAK, DERBYSHIRE |
Related Monuments/Buildings (0)
Related Events/Activities (1)
- EDR2863
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External Links (0)
Record last edited
Mar 15 2020 10:17AM