demands of mill and house builders in the town meant that a ready
supply of stone was essential for the rapid development of Bollington.
Fortunately, there is a source of very good building stone just
beneath the surface, and many quarries were opened up on both sides
of the valley of the river Dean, as well as all along Kerridge
- Beeston, on the north side behind Queen Street, Oak Bank
mill, and extending towards Nab hill;
- Hurst, on the south side behind Water Street;
- Owlhurst, and many smaller quarries.
There were many stone quarries, particularly along the west
side of Kerridge hill. The stone was very high quality and in
demand for the facing of public buildings around the country.
- Bridge - previously Victoria quarry (1851), Bridge End quarry
- Sycamore, Northend, and others
- Use of the Rally Road.
As the town developed so the demand for coal increased enormously.
It would be needed to fire the boilers at many mills, especially
once they moved from water power to steam power. Oak Bank mill
used 250 tons a week! Add to that the needs of domestic users
- the coal fired range was the sole means of heating and cooking
in most homes.
There were many small coal pits in the district and the remains
of many can be seen along the east and north sides of Kerridge
Hill. Some of these pits were bell pits - a hole was dug down to
the coal seam, then the coal was removed and the bottom of the
hole got ever wider, until it started to fall in, at which point
the pit was abandoned and a new hole dug a short distance away.
Other pits were based on a shaft dug into the hillside following
a seam of coal. Also still visible are the tracks that connected
these pits together and to the roads to enable the coal to be taken
away from the hill. Some tracks are today used as footpaths, others
are just marks along the hillside.
The biggest pit in Kerridge hill was on the west side and developed
by William Clayton. This pit had shafts and galleries. There was
also a tunnel through the hill to access pits on the east side.
A feature long believed to have been a ventilation shaft which
stands beside Windmill
Lane by Victoria Bridge is thought to
have been built by William Clayton. However, it has been re-furbished
in 2009 as part of the KRIV
found to have a solid rock bottom, so it is unlikely to have been
for ventilation. Neither did it have any soot inside so it could
not have been a chimney for any industry lower down the hillside.
It's purpose remains a mystery - perhaps it was just a folly.
Usually mined with coal, seams of fireclay were to be found under
Bollington and stretching to Pott Shrigley and Bakestonedale, all
part of the wider Poynton coalfield. The coal and the fireclay
were usually one above the other so it made considerable
economic sense to mine them both, make bricks of the clay and fire
them with the coal. This was how it was done at Hammond's brick
works at Pott Shrigley.
Just north of Clarence mill, along the canal a couple of hundred metres,
there is a wharf. If you look carefully you will see that the off-side
canal edge is formed from large well dressed blocks of stone. This
wharf belonged to John Hall & Sons Ltd and served their mine, the
drift shaft of which can still be seen, easiest in winter, alongside
the field hedge about 150m from the canal. This gently sloping shaft
went back under the hill and the output was fireclay. This was loaded
onto day boats (those having no living accommodation) at the wharf
and, at one time, taken to Dukinfield near Ashton-under-Lyne, to the
east of Manchester. So imagine, if you will, the lot of the poor boatman
- he would start early in the morning with his horse towing the boat
loaded with about 20 tons of clay up the Macclesfield Canal. Almost
three hours to Marple then onto the Peak Forest Canal and spend two
hours getting down the 16 locks. A couple more hours to Dukinfield,
tie up and assist unloading the clay by hand. Turn the boat, head off
back up the Peak Forest Canal, two more hours up the Marple flight
and back along the Macclesfield to Bollington. A good sixteen hours
work; time to knock off! Do it all again in the morning.
My thanks go to those who researched and discovered the history
that is presented in these pages. Please
read the full acknowledgement of their remarkable achievement.
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