This Ole House

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* Bradshaw Hall and Bleachworks

Family Crest

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Replacing an earlier building, Bradshaw Hall was built in the 1600s, a grand house in a rural setting. By the latter part of that century, its owner, John Bradshaw, was struggling financially. His estate was not generating the income he needed. With a large family to support (eight daughters, who would all need dowries for marriage, and three sons), he needed money. At first, he took out a loan from the Chethams of Turton Tower, mortgaging his estate to do so. However, circumstances eventually forced him to sell up and move on. A distant relative, Henry Bradshaw of Marple in Cheshire, bought the estate.

The Marple Bradshaws owned the estate for more than two hundred years, but because no one in the family ever lived at the hall, a succession of tenants occupied it. Originally a three-storey house about 60 feet long, it had a central porch with bay windows at each side. Various tenants carried out successive alterations over the years.

In the 1780s, the Lomax family, tenants of the hall at the time, started a small bleaching business, laying out cloth in the meadows behind the hall to bleach naturally in the sun. This often attracted various people who would steal the cloth for profit, so watchmen set out man-traps and loaded guns triggered by a trip wire to stop them. Anyone ‘lucky’ enough to get caught by a watchman would either be deported to the colonies or executed. One particular local man, James Holland, was unfortunate enough to be executed for stealing cloth, so to make sure everyone got the message, the entire workforce was made to watch the hanging!

Eventually, bleaching cloth in the sun became obsolete when Bradshaw Brook’s proximity, which provided a large, steady water supply, led to the establishment of a more industrial process. In 1834, the Bradshaw family sold 60 acres of land to Thomas Hardcastle, who already owned a bleaching and dyeing operation elsewhere. He moved into Bradshaw Hall as the new tenant and later spent a large amount of money restoring it and building a new bleach and dye works.

The Hardcastle family came to have a major influence in the Bradshaw area and over the years they funded the building of a new church, constructed a mission hall, built a new school and opened the town’s first bank … they also built several rows of terraced workers’ houses, some of which still exist today. After buying up small local bleaching businesses and starting a new printworks that produced 2,400 different patterns engraved on copper printing rollers, the site at Bradshaw Hall grew into Bolton’s largest bleach and dyeworks.

A list of workers’ rules printed in 1875 said that all workspaces, including windows and machinery, were to be kept clean, and fines were imposed for being absent without permission, bringing in people who didn’t work there, smoking, drinking, and being in any part of the site where one wasn’t employed to be, with all the fine money going into a club fund for any sick employees.

Before WWII, the bleach, dye and print works employed around 700 people … the business continued in existence after the hall was demolished, but by 1955 employee numbers had fallen to 300. However, with further investment, new buildings began to be constructed in 1960, but three years later, and just weeks after they opened, the whole site was closed down permanently. For the next twenty-odd years a succession of different businesses occupied the buildings, but they gradually showed their age and became unsuitable for use. One by one the businesses moved out, and by the late 1980s the buildings were derelict. The land was sold for housing, though it was hoped that a couple of the three-storey buildings could be saved and converted into apartments; however, they were in such a bad state of repair that, along with the rest of the works, demolition was inevitable. Unfortunately, during the demolition process, one of the works’ chimneys fell the wrong way and severely damaged the preserved Bradshaw Hall porch… this was rebuilt in the early 1990s and stands in situ to-day.

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* Hall I’ Th’ Woods

Spinning Mule

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In the mid-17th century, when a family of yeomen and merchants (yeomen are a class between gentry and labourers) owned it, the hall received a grand Jacobean-style stone extension.

In later years, the building was split into several rented dwellings. While living in one of these with his family, this is where Samuel Crompton famously invented the ‘spinning mule’. This invention was the first multiple spindle machine capable of producing consistently fine yarn. It revolutionised the country’s textile industry and shaped Bolton’s and the North’s fortunes.

Hall i’ th’ Wood was inhabited up until the late 19th century, after which it fell into disrepair. Thanks to Lord Leverhulme, local businessman and philanthropist, the building was saved from ruin, and much-needed repairs were undertaken. The house and grounds were presented to the people of Bolton in memory of Samuel Crompton and were opened to the public as a museum in 1902.

This is well worth a visit to-day … displays from the 17th and 18th centuries, objects and artefacts and insights into the fascinating life and work of Samuel Crompton. The rooms have been accurately refurbished to retain their homely atmosphere, including the Lancashire kitchen, cosy Browlow bedroom, fine oak panelling and ornate plasterwork.

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* Turton Tower

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Turton Tower is a Grade I listed manor house. Built in the late Middle Ages as a two-storey stone pele tower, it was altered and enlarged mainly in the late 16th century.

The oldest part of the building, which was probably built in the early 15th century, is the stone pele tower. It stood 35 feet high with four-foot-thick walls. In the tower’s northwest corner, the shaft of a ‘garderobe’ (a room for storing valuables) projects from the main structure. The tower had three low storeys as evidenced by the blocked window openings.

Turton Tower was home to the Lords of the Manor of Turton and, around 1200, was part of the barony of Manchester; by then, the de Lathom family held the manor. The Orrells inherited in the 1420s and rebuilt the pele tower. In 1628 the Orrells, who were greatly in debt, sold Turton tower to Manchester merchant Humphrey Chetham (of Chetham’s Library and Chetham’s School of Music). It passed to his descendants … the Bland, Green and Frere families, who leased it to a succession of tenant farmers.

Chetham chose to live elsewhere, so the Orrells continued to live here until 1647. During the Civil War (1642-1651), the Orrells were Royalists while Chetham supported Cromwell … these must have been interesting times at the Tower, particularly when Chetham garrisoned Parliamentary troops in the barn!

The tower was sold in 1835, in a state of disrepair, to James Kay, who restored it. He sold the tower to Elizabeth and Anne Appleton (their father, Thomas Appleton, owned Horrobin Mill), who leased it to William Rigg, a calico manufacturer. His daughter, Ellen, wrote “Victorian Children at Turton Tower”. In 1903, his widow, Lady Nina Knowles, presented it to Turton Urban District Council in 1930 … it became the council’s seat of local government. For many years, the dining room was used as the council chamber and the drawing room as a committee room. In 1952 the Tower was opened as a museum by Edward Stanley … The Earl of Derby and Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire. After local government reorganisation in 1974, Turton was split, and the tower became part of the Borough of Blackburn, administered by the Lancashire County Museums Service. After changes to the Service, Blackburn and Darwen Council took over the tower.

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* The Bank

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THE NAME ~ Jumbles derives from the word ‘Dumble’, coming from Old English meaning ‘deep wooded valley’ or ‘deep-cut water course … this perfectly gives an image of what the valley would have looked like before the reservoir.

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* Horrobin Bleachworks and Jumbles Reservoir

Approach Lane to mill ~ Mill offices

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Horrobin Mill, now beneath the reservoir, spanned both sides of Bradshaw Brook … its ruins are only visible in times of severe drought! A bleachworks existed here from the 1780s onwards (possibly on the site of a corn or fulling mill), but really expanded significantly in the Victorian age. Initially two separate factories, it merged into one extensive site.

The thirst for water was so high that a consortium of bleachworks, including the owners of Horrobin Mill and Bradshaw Hall Works, built a reservoir further north in the valley. This was Entwistle Reservoir, and it served the needs of the bleachworks for 25 years. In 1863, Bolton Corporation compulsorily purchased it for drinking water. This meant a new reservoir was required for the industrial needs … hence the construction of Wayoh Reservoir.

Several local wealthy families owned Horrobin Mill, but in 1937 the Bleachers Association (remember them from the Bradshaw Works?) bought it and became its final proprietors. This acquisition proved fatal … it was closed in 1941, giving its sister site at Bradshaw a greater share of the water from Wayoh. They demolished most of Horrobin Mill’s buildings in 1948.

Demand for drinking water in Bolton kept growing, and even the Thirlmere Pipeline, which brought water down from the Lake District, could not meet it. The decision was made that, along with Entwistle, Wayoh should also be used solely for drinking water. However, this would require a third reservoir to scour Bradshaw Brook (i.e. free from debris) and supply the Croal-Irwell River complex downstream … cue Jumbles.

A decision was made to construct Jumbles as a ‘compensation reservoir’ to fulfil this purpose. No drinking water would be taken from it.  In 1964, Bolton Corporation bought the Horrobin Mill site for £8,500 and demolished the remaining buildings. Construction began in 1967, and the first task was clearing all vegetation from the site. Next, workers demolished two surviving mill chimneys. They then excavated the valley, moving huge amounts of earth to sculpt the basin. This engineering feat enabled Jumbles Reservoir to discharge four million gallons of water into Bradshaw Brook each day. By August 1970, the reservoir was complete, but work continued on landscaping the perimeter. It took five months for the reservoir to fill up. At capacity, it can hold 450 million gallons of water to a depth of 75 feet. 

In 1971, Bolton’s mayor, Alderman John Monks, officially opened Jumbles Reservoir. In 1973, the surrounding site was designated a Country Park, which the Queen opened.

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INFORMATION:

DISTANCE: 6.8 miles

CLIMBING: 730 feet

ORIENTATION: Circular/Clockwise

CAR PARK: Jumbles Country Park BL2 4JS

END OF WALK PUB:???

EATING PLACES: Cafe Twelve / Turton Tower Cafe / Water Fold Cafe

COMMENTS:

DOGS: On lead at all times. All facilities in are dog-friendly

PRODUCED AND NARRATED BY: Vinne Anderson

CAMERA WORK BY: Jon Shedwick

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SOURCES OF INFORMATION: TURTON LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

This was ... "This Ole House"
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