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Litton Mill

Cotton millsFormer textile mills in the United KingdomIndustrial Revolution in EnglandTextile mills completed in the 18th centuryTextile mills in Derbyshire
Litton Mill 0546
Litton Mill 0546

Litton Mill is a textile mill at Millers Dale, near Tideswell in Derbyshire. The original 19th-century mill became notorious during the Industrial Revolution for its unsavoury employment practices, luridly described by the commentators of the day, and the testimony of Robert Blincoe, a parish apprentice who had been indentured to work at the mill. It was set up in 1782 by Ellis Needham and Thomas Frith, both farmers with small estates in the area. The mill was powered by the water of the River Wye, using Richard Arkwright's water frame. It could be said that the company was doomed from the start. Needham, in particular, had sunk most of his assets into the venture. The valley was particularly isolated and transport for the raw material and finished goods was poor. Moreover, they had difficulty in attracting a workforce. The early spinners, such as Arkwright and Strutt, had been able to attract the families of weavers and framework knitters, so-called "free labour" meaning the employees were not indentured. Meanwhile, Evans at Darley Abbey could draw on a pool of labour from the town of Derby. In contrast, the area around Litton was sparsely populated by farming people who were scornful of the new cotton industry. By 1786 the, barely profitable, mill was put up for sale. There were no buyers and Needham and Frith struggled on. Needham's money had gone and he was farming on rented land, while Frith left the partnership in 1799. The Poor Relief Act 1601 had, among its provisions "the putting out of children to be apprentices". An agreement was made between the churchwarden and an employer, by means of an indenture sworn before a Justice of the Peace, that the latter would provide for and give employment and training to a pauper child. Often this worked for the benefit of the child but often it was seen by employers as a source of cheap labour and a way for a parish to relieve itself of responsibility. In the absence of any local labour, this was the course taken by Needham and Frith. In the early 19th century there was a general depression in the industry, and the workforce was reduced by a half. There was a serious fire, and in 1811 the waterwheel broke and was out of action for a month. By 1815, Needham was bankrupt and had been given notice to quit. By 1828 he was a pauper. Frith fared somewhat better on his farm, and operating a small spinning mill near Tideswell. The mill was operated for a time by the Newtons of Cressbrook Mill but was destroyed by another fire in 1874. Very little remains of the original mill. Its replacement manufactures nylon yarn for hosiery. In 1893 Mr Matthew Dickie, a former Stockport mill owner, bought Litton Mill. Dickie began his business career as a spinner and manufacturer with his father Matthew Dickie Senior. When he took over Litton Mill he brought with him several families from Stockport. He set up a Litton & Cressbrook Mills Company and Cressbrook Mill was taken over. To bring the two mills into closer touch, a road was made along the river by the Company and a toll in aid of local hospitals was charged for visitors who wished to use the road. This shortened the distance to Monsal Dale. Litton Mill was sold to a syndicate in 1934. Matthew Dickie had Ravenstor built in Miller's Dale as his family residence which was given to the National Trust in 1937 by Alderman J.G.Graves of Sheffield along with 64 acres (260,000 m2) of land, which included a one-mile (1.6 km) stretch of the River Wye and Tideswell Dale, all of which are leased to the Youth Hostel Association and open all year round.

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Litton Mill
Monsal Trail, Derbyshire Dales

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N 53.254 ° E -1.762 °
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Monsal Trail
SK17 8SW Derbyshire Dales
England, United Kingdom
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Litton Mill 0546
Litton Mill 0546
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Cressbrook
Cressbrook

Cressbrook is a village in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire. It lies in Water-cum-Jolly Dale at the foot of Cressbrook Dale. Population details at the 2011 Census are included in the civil parish of Litton. Before its Enclosure Act of 1762 Cressbrook did not exist. It later grew up around a textile mill complex built alongside the River Wye, first by Richard Arkwright and then later by his son Richard, JL Philips and Brother Cotton Spinners and McConnel and Company. Until McConnel's period of ownership the village did not exist beyond a collection of buildings in the immediate vicinity of the mill. When McConnel's workforce objected to the quality of the housing available he took it upon himself to build the model village that became Cressbrook. Building started in the late 1830s and was later extended by Henry McConnel's daughter, Mary Worthington, in 1902 to include a village club, modelled on a working men's club. Cressbrook Mill went bankrupt in 1965, after which time it changed from being a private mill estate to the public village that it now is. The Monsal Trail passes Cressbrook Mill. This 8.5-mile (13.7-kilometre) walk and cycleway mostly follows the old trackbed of the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway where, from 1866 to 1959, the village of Cressbrook was served by Monsal Dale railway station. Until May 2011 the Cressbrook Tunnel (and others) were closed to walkers and cyclists for safety reasons and the Trail diverted across the River Wye next to the Mill. David Cannon McConnel emigrated to Queensland, Australia in 1840. In 1841, he established the Cressbrook Homestead named after their home town. The homestead in turn gives its name to the modern-day localities of Cressbrook, Queensland and Lower Cressbrook, Queensland.

Tideswell Dale
Tideswell Dale

Tideswell Dale is a short dry limestone valley near Tideswell village, Derbyshire, in the Peak District of England. There is a farmland plateau on either side. The foot of the valley leads into Miller's Dale on the River Wye, which the valley's Brook Head stream runs into.The Carboniferous limestone rocks of these dales were formed 350 million years ago from the shells and sediments of a tropical sea. The landscape was then sculpted by the ice sheets from the last Ice Age 20,000 years ago. The disused basalt quarry on the east side of Tideswell Dale is now a nature reserve. Stone was quarried from a sill of dolerite rock, which was the result of lava rising through the strata of the surrounding limestone 'Debyshire Dome'. Tideswell Dale is part of the designated Wye Valley Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) between Buxton and Bakewell, which also covers Cunning Dale, Woo Dale, Wye Dale, Chee Dale, Monsal Dale and Taddington Wood. These dales contain ancient ash and wych elm woodland. The many herbs and wild flowers include lady's bedstraw, bird's-foot trefoil, bloody cranesbill, devil's-bit scabious, saw-wort, ox-eye daisy, cowslip and common spotted-orchid. The upper valley sides are heathland habitat for bilberry and heather. The dale is also home to small heath and common blue butterflies.Ravenstor at the foot of Tideswell Dale is a huge outcrop of overhanging rock. It is a challenging rock climbing location with over 200 graded routes, up to 50m long and including Mutation, graded 9a making it the hardest route in the Peak District. There are also several limestone buttresses in Tideswell Dale itself with established rock climbing pitches.Access into Tideswell Dale is easy from the B6049 road which runs down the valley from Tideswell in the north to Miller's Dale, about 1 km west of the south end of the dale. Tideswell Dale car park is on the B6049 from where the footpath follows an avenue of mature beech trees. A footpath runs from the Monsal Trail, over the footbridge at Litton Mill up through the dale to Tideswell. There is also a parking area near Litton Mill.

Millers Dale
Millers Dale

Millers Dale (Ordnance Survey: Miller's Dale) is a valley on the River Wye in Derbyshire, England, where there is also a hamlet of the same name. It is a popular beauty spot in the Peak District of England, much of the area being preserved as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Nearby are Ravenstor and Chee Dale, both popular with rock-climbers. Just to the north of the dale lie the village of Wormhill and the lesser-known valleys of Peter Dale and Monk's Dale, the latter being listed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a nature reserve. A local landmark is the viaduct, first built by the Midland Railway in 1866. Increasing traffic meant that a second viaduct parallel to the first was built in 1905, increasing the number of tracks to four. Millers Dale station was at the junction where passengers for Buxton joined or left the trains between London and Manchester. The station closed in 1967 and the line closed in the following year. Large sections of the trackbed now form part of the Monsal Trail, a cycle and walking trail.Northwards from Millers Dale the line entered the two Chee Tor tunnels (401 and 94 yards), separated by a 50-foot-high (15 m) bridge over the River Wye, then along a ledge cut into the rock face, before entering Rusher Cutting tunnel (121 yards), crossing the Wye again by another viaduct. The line here was immensely difficult and expensive to construct, skirting, as it did, the base of the 300-foot (91 m) high ciff of Chee Tor. Chee number 1 was, until May 2011, sealed off for safety reasons, but it is now possible to walk through all three tunnels. Further on was the triangular junction for Buxton via Blackwell Mill, before continuing to Peak Forest. The area is of great interest to geologists, particularly where the strata have been exposed by quarries and railway cuttings. In Station Quarry two layers of limestone can be seen, separated by a bed of shale. At one point there is a dip in the lower layer, possibly from a watercourse, millions of years ago. This is filled with the shale and a large limestone boulder can be seen within it. Elsewhere in the area there are signs of lava flows from long-ago volcanic activity.