The end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago saw massive floods careering down what became the Sett and Goyt valleys . The power generated by the force of billions of gallons of flood water carved a deep gorge , around which the town of New Mills now stands .
This water was a heaven-sent opportunity for later mill owners at the height of the industrial revolution . King Cotton , the then major industry that allowed Britain to clothe the world , became entrenched in mills lining the 100ft deep gorge winding far beneath the high Union Road Bridge , and almost hidden from the two parts of New Mills it linked .
The cotton mills were not the first mills to use the power of the rivers . Sometime after 1391 , a corn mill was built at the bottom of what is now High Street ; the tiny hamlet it served became known as newmylne and the name appears to have stuck . By the late sixteenth century this changed slightly to New Mill , but with the appearance of a profusion of cotton mills in the late 1700s , it became New Mills acknowledging the changes overtaking the town that grew on what was once farmland .
While the geography of the site was ideal for siting mills , taking advantage of the free water power , it did have its drawbacks . Access to the mills was up and down steep inclined lanes ; housing the mill workers dictated that the houses were built literally clinging to the steep hillsides with the result that most were a pair , not side by side , but one on top of the other – the upper on one street and the lower at another address : the local term for such houses is ‘ under-livings ’, which aptly describes the way the houses are piled , one on top of the other .
Before Union Road Bridge was erected , traffic between the two parts of the town meant a steep climb down into the Torrs Gorge and a steep climb out , crossing the rivers by low bridges . This unsatisfactory state of affairs came to a head in 1875 when a man was killed trying to cross during a flood . Following stern comments by the coroner about the need for a safer bridge , ratepayer pressure forced the powers-that-be to agree to cross the gorge by a 94ft high bridge . Using stone conveniently to hand in the rocks lining the gorge , by 1884 the town ’ s folk of New Mills were able to celebrate their bridge with a procession and general rejoicing . Oddly and although the continuation of the newly built Union Road across the bridge ran through what was then farmland , it took several decades before it developed as the present grouping of small independent shops and commercial offices .
Exploring New Mills
Torvale Mill , probably the oldest mill still spinning untill a decade ago .
By Brian Spencer
8 | CountryImagesMagazine . co . uk