Building record MDR7793 - Campbell's Mill / St George's Works, St. George's Street, New Mills

Water Map of 1831 - showing Ollersett Waterworks - two small circles are indicated - possibly kilns - on the site of the present mill - accompanied by words "near a pottery". Tithe map of 1841 shows the building and a possible kiln at one end. Description says " Print and Pot Works". In September 1839 the building was up for sale and the advert in the Stockport Advertiser said: " …and also all that other stone building, now fitted up as a cotton factory, with a new steam engine of 12hp, situated at the top of the said St George's Works and formerly used as a pottery warehouse". In the 1880s building became part of an engraving works (copper cylinders for calico printing) and continued to 1976. John Potts established an engraving business in 1824. Small claypits are remembered to have been in the vicinity of the St. George's Works. The firm became Salisbury and Campbell , and then Waler Campbell and Co. Ltd in 1881. 130 engravers were employed by 1939. The designs were for shirtings, dress material and wallpaper. In 1962 became Textile Engravers, New Mills Ltd". Closed in 1976, the buildings becoming used by Brook Industrial Supply Co. Ltd. (1) St George's Works is a stone building with a truncated chimney situated on St George's Road. It is one of the oldest industrial buildings in New Mills. It was established by John Potts, an artist who was internationally famous for inventing a method of engraving copper rollers for printing calico cloth. There was probably a pottery on this site in the late 1820s. Chinaware was certainly printed, for a New Mills stamp with the words 'St George's Pottery' is known to have existed. Later the works were extended and used for engraving copper cylinders until the mid 1970s. (2)