Cellars Clough Mills – Marsden – August 2012
A Brief History
The woollen mill was owned by Samuel Firth of Gatehead in Marsden, and opened in 1888. He also owned Holme Mill. By the 1960s, it was owned and run by Fisher, Firth & Co. which became Cellars Clough Woollen Mills Ltd, managed by another Firth son, in 1981. The company has now been dissolved.
Situated just off the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, the mill’s pond is now a very popular fishing spot. Planning permission was granted for the conversion of the mills and former offices to 101 dwelling units, 9 live/work units, a resident’s gym, pool, shop, meeting room, bike store, car park and improvements to the access road.
Previous planning applications have been unsuccessful as bats were found to be residing in the mill. The bats weren’t forcibly removed, so the hope was that they would eventually choose the ‘improved accommodation’ for themselves.
The 45m high stone chimney on the site is to be demolished soon; as structurally it’s beyond repair.
My Visit
After what seems to be months without any time to have a quick explore, a couple of hours finally turned up. There are 3 mills in Marsden I’ve wanted to visit, today I chose this one for some reason. After 5 minutes I was shouted at by the owners of the fishing ponds; I’d stepped off the footpath to get a nice building shot and hence was trespassing! Once they discovered I was not Polish and did not want to catch and eat all the fish in the pond we had a pleasant chat for about 30 minutes. Their passing comment on leaving was there’s security on site 24/7 just encase I was thinking of trying to get in! I assured then I had no intention of doing that and was just interested in the local heritage and would continue with my wander down the canal. I waved them good-by and then jumped over the fence
Report
Image 1
I’ll start with the chimney to the rear of the mill, for some reason there are a pair of static ropes still rigged from the summit, fair enough they have seen better days, but a way to the top before the chimney gets demolished in the next year. As well as having a very obvious lean; the mortar beds are in a poor state.
Image 2
Back inside the main building there’s evidence of work having been undertaken in the past; the stone flags have been lifted and a water pipe has been installed.
Image 3
There’s something about the large open spaces found in the old mills, I just love them, but often hard to get a good photo due to the extremes of light.
Image 4
I liked this arch feature, which lead you into one of the side rooms.
Image 5
You can’t beat some nice mill windows, I have taken a few images and it’s one thing that makes these places special.
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Old sign back on the ground floor.
Image 10
A quick call into what was the offices, they must have been grand rooms in their time, not much left now though.
Well I enjoyed my explore here, I could have spent more time and posted more images in this report, but happy with what I saw and there’s a few reports on here already so didn’t want to repeat too many of the images.
Cheers
TLR
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