PLUNGE MILL
Covered comprehensively in John Simpsons Book ‘History of Edenfield & District.
Dearden Brook
Built about 1801.
1801 Built as a woollen fulling mill by Giles Hoyle on land taken on a 99 year lease from Lawrence Rostron who owned the New Hall estate at the time. Giles Hoyle went bankrupt and passed the mill and tenterfield etc to John Wallwork for the remainder of the lease in 1812. [Goldthorpe page 91]
1828 John Wallwork is listed as fulling miller at Plunge Mill. [Pigot]
1833 The Irwell Reservoir Scheme noted that Mr John Wallwork was never short of water and the intended reservoir would be an injury to him by bringing muddy water and not clear water.
1836 John Wallwork died. He had eight children and one of his son’s Thomas bought the mill lease. Eight years later he bought the mill outright from Lawrence Rawstorne, owner of New Hall. By 1851 Thomas had branched out into cotton spinning and manufacturing as well as fulling woollen cloth and was employing 40 people at his little mill. [Simpson page 78]
1850 and 1861 Thomas Wallwork was a fulling miller at Plunge Mill. [Heap and Drake]
1862 Thomas Wallwork died and the mill was taken over by his daughters, Elizabeth & Jane. They ran it as a hard waste cotton mill until 1867 when they rented it out to a number of tenants until 1879 when it was offered for sale but it wasn’t sold until 1904 – to Alexander Barlow & sons from nearby Bridge Mills. The buildings fell into ruins and were gradually demolished – chimney felled in 1909. One corner of the mill – the cloth warehouse and winding place survived until 1950s when this too was demolished. [Simpson page 79]
The remains of Plunge Mill – the site was cleared and excavated by the Rossendale Groundwork Trust in the mid-1980s. The waterwheel and tailrace are now clearly evident. [Goldthorpe page 91].