I had a look round the Pleasington Alum works a couple of years ago (nothing much to see) and went back more recently to check out a mill and hydraulic ram in Woodfold Old Wood further up the valley.
First a map of part of the area - the sawmill appears between 1844 and 1892 and the ram by 1910.
A few things in the valley and surrounding woodlands on the way upstream.
Photos are all phone.
Alum Scar Bridge (listed) in the background, photo taken standing on a rather impressive weir with four channels, two on either side of a central pier.
This may have been for controlling water flow to the alum works downstream.
A shell-like wreck (called the ‘White House’) with a nice frontage…
…the remains of Old Woodfold Farm…
…and a (listed) icehouse with an egg-shaped interior.
Now heading up Arley Brook…
…there are four cisterns marked on the map.
One looks like a shallow well and the other three are brick boxes with filters.
The picture below is the cistern nearest the ram with water running through a filter chamber into a reservoir full of tyres.
The sunken ram hut is down the hill, hidden in the undergrowth, with a channel for waste water leading down to the river.
But no ram.
After chucking out a load of sandstone roofing slabs and mud this is what was left.
If there was a ram here it looks like it was replaced by a piston-type pump at some stage, with whatever drove it bolted to the plinth.
The two bases are earthenware, not iron. So a bit of a mystery.
The remains of the sawmill visible on the other side of the valley didn’t look too promising either.
Indeed the main part was a complete wreck with nothing visible under the collapsed remains apart from a section of lineshafting.
I hadn’t looked at the map too closely and assumed the mill was going to be powered by a waterwheel with the water coming from this weir about 50 yards upstream.
But no sign of a wheel pit or leat - instead there was a water turbine in an extension on the river side.
The water apparently came across the valley on an elevated aqueduct - it’s shown on the map - and down the pipe.
As far I could see the levels don’t really work with the weir being too low although it’s hard to judge horizontals in a sloping valley.
There’s also what looks like the remains of a leat running up the side of the river near where the aqueduct began.
Another small mystery.
But water turbines are cool so some more pictures.
The protrusions on the back of the turbine would once have been linked by rods, rotating together to move control vanes inside.
I didn’t see a maker’s name or serial number, but this might be a Gilkes turbine.
There was a similar one in the sawmill near Llwydiarth in Wales - turbines make sense for sawmills because they rotate much faster than water wheels so require less gearing.
The hole in the base of the wall where the water from the turbine ran back to the river.
And a local who was hopping around in there.
I haven’t found any details online about the sawmill and the other hydraulic remains, but everything in this area was, and still is, part of the Woodfold Estate.
As with a couple of previous reports about valleys in Cheshire, these places with old waterworks are always worth a wander.
First a map of part of the area - the sawmill appears between 1844 and 1892 and the ram by 1910.
A few things in the valley and surrounding woodlands on the way upstream.
Photos are all phone.
Alum Scar Bridge (listed) in the background, photo taken standing on a rather impressive weir with four channels, two on either side of a central pier.
This may have been for controlling water flow to the alum works downstream.
A shell-like wreck (called the ‘White House’) with a nice frontage…
…the remains of Old Woodfold Farm…
…and a (listed) icehouse with an egg-shaped interior.
Now heading up Arley Brook…
…there are four cisterns marked on the map.
One looks like a shallow well and the other three are brick boxes with filters.
The picture below is the cistern nearest the ram with water running through a filter chamber into a reservoir full of tyres.
The sunken ram hut is down the hill, hidden in the undergrowth, with a channel for waste water leading down to the river.
But no ram.
After chucking out a load of sandstone roofing slabs and mud this is what was left.
If there was a ram here it looks like it was replaced by a piston-type pump at some stage, with whatever drove it bolted to the plinth.
The two bases are earthenware, not iron. So a bit of a mystery.
The remains of the sawmill visible on the other side of the valley didn’t look too promising either.
Indeed the main part was a complete wreck with nothing visible under the collapsed remains apart from a section of lineshafting.
I hadn’t looked at the map too closely and assumed the mill was going to be powered by a waterwheel with the water coming from this weir about 50 yards upstream.
But no sign of a wheel pit or leat - instead there was a water turbine in an extension on the river side.
The water apparently came across the valley on an elevated aqueduct - it’s shown on the map - and down the pipe.
As far I could see the levels don’t really work with the weir being too low although it’s hard to judge horizontals in a sloping valley.
There’s also what looks like the remains of a leat running up the side of the river near where the aqueduct began.
Another small mystery.
But water turbines are cool so some more pictures.
The protrusions on the back of the turbine would once have been linked by rods, rotating together to move control vanes inside.
I didn’t see a maker’s name or serial number, but this might be a Gilkes turbine.
There was a similar one in the sawmill near Llwydiarth in Wales - turbines make sense for sawmills because they rotate much faster than water wheels so require less gearing.
The hole in the base of the wall where the water from the turbine ran back to the river.
And a local who was hopping around in there.
I haven’t found any details online about the sawmill and the other hydraulic remains, but everything in this area was, and still is, part of the Woodfold Estate.
As with a couple of previous reports about valleys in Cheshire, these places with old waterworks are always worth a wander.
