Report - Crimble Mill July 2017

Cloth Head · Jan 9, 2018

CRIMBLE Mill, empty since the closure of the Roe Acre dying company earlier this year, has been identified by English Heritage as an historic building at risk.

The mill, built in the 19th century, is a grade II listed building and has been given a category C priority by English Heritage, which is hoping to save many of the nation's historic buildings from crumbling away. Category A is reserved for the most dilapidated of buildings, some of which are no more than ruins or shells.

English Heritage has also officially classified the condition of the Crimble Mill as "poor" and says "It retains rare water wheel housing but the roof is leaking and the upper levels are decaying. Listed buildings consent for demolition was refused in the 1980s."

The mill is one of 162 buildings across the North West that have officially been classed as at risk and all are contained in a newly-launched English Heritage Buildings At Risk Register.

The mill was built in 1886 by James Kenyon and Son Ltd on the site of another mill, built by the same family, 125 years earlier. The mill stayed with the Kenyon family right up until 1970, when Roe Acre Dying took over.

In October 1983 there was a battle between Rochdale Council, Heywood Civic Society and the Roe Acre company, during a two-day public inquiry. It followed an appeal by the Roe Acre company against a previous council decision not to allow demolition. At the time Roe Acre claimed that the mill was adding 20 per cent to the company's production costs, but the council still refused permission to demolish it.

However in 1987, the council did an about-face and said it was "minded" to recommend demolition before a second public inquiry was called in July 1987. It never went ahead after Roe Acre withdrew its application.

The mill was back in the news again in January 1995 when the council's own buildings at risk register also classified the mill's condition as "poor".

Visited with Camera Shy and Host back in July 2017