1787/1790 Built. First used for fulling wool [Ramsbottom Timeline]
Chatterton Mill covered comprehensively in ‘History of Edenfield & District’ by John Simpson.
First tenant - Edmund Sagar and his sons operated this mill, firstly as a woollen fulling mill and later also for cotton spinning.
1818 Edmund Sagar & sons cotton & woollen manufacturers, Edenfield [Rogerson]
1821 Chatterton Mill taken over by Thomas Aitken – under him it became a cotton mill powered by a waterwheel 14ft wide and just over that in diameter. By 1826 it was weaving as well as spinning and used 46 newly installed power looms. [Ramsbottom Timeline]
1824 Thomas Aitken is listed as cotton spinner at Chatterton. [Baines]
1826 Thomas Aitken owned this at the time of ‘the riots’. In 1826 a crowd of men and women, being of the opinion as many were at that time, that the installation of power looms would deprive them of their livelihood, entered Thomas Aitken’s mill and destroyed the machinery. The soldiers were called out and William Grant read ‘The Riot Act’. The crowd threw stones and the soldiers fired – 5 men and 1 woman were killed and a large number wounded. Some rioters were imprisoned and others deported to Australia. The site was eventually given to R.U.D.C. for use as the Chatterton Playing Fields by Austin T. Porritt in 1923. {Goldthorpe page 67]
1828 Thomas Aitken, cotton – Chatterton & also at Ravenshore. [Pigot]
1830 Thomas took his son John into partnership and expanded the business to Irwell Vale Mill. [Simpson page 61]
1833 Thomas Aitken recorded at Chatterton Cotton Mill in 1833 [Irwell Reservoir Scheme]
1841 Thomas Aitken - cotton spinner & manufacturer. [Pigot & Slater]
1850 Thomas Aitken, Chatterton Mill - also lists the bookkeeper as James Haslam at Chatterton Mill. [Heap]
1851 Aitken transferred all business to Irwell Vale Mill. Chatterton estate sold to Richard Bridge. [Simpson page 61] Thomas Aitken went to live at Great Hey.
1857 Richard Bridge became bankrupt – William Bridge (no apparent relation) bought the mill [Simpson page 61]
1861 William Bridge – cotton spinner & manufacturer is listed at Chatterton Mill, Edenfield. [Drake]
1863 – 1868 mill rented to Messrs Kershaw & Newbigging who were the last cotton manufacturers to operate the mill [Simpson page 61]
Empty for a time until a succession of Mineral Water Manufacturers tenanted it.
1890 much of the mill dilapidated [Simpson page 61]
1895 –Chatterton Mill bought by the Porritts who demolished the buildings and cleared the site – they donated it as a recreation area which still exists today. [RHS magazine No: 15 Autumn 1992]
As part of one of the walks in Further Rossendale Rambles, Goldthorpe points out ...’note the depression running across the meadow to the right and on the left the stone abutments on either side of the river. This marked the route of the headrace which carried water from a weir across the meadow and over the river adjacent to our path into a lodge to serve Thomas Aitken’s mill..’. [Goldthorpe page 67]
Hume Elliot refers to Thomas Aitken ...’there was also early this century, the spinning and manufacturing establishment, now a ruin, at Chatterton, long in the hands of Messrs Aitkin & Lord, in whose possession it was at the time of the riot in 1826 [Elliot page 146]
Although the partnership of Aitken & Lord is mentioned in all the historic references, Mr Lord is a bit of a mystery as he is not mentioned in the documentary references such as Trade Directories or Rate Assessments in fact I have come across NO reference to the ‘Lord’ in Aitken & Lord.
Holcombe Hall was built in 1864 by a member of the Aitken family who was a direct descendant of Thomas Aitken who was the owner of Chatterton Mill. The Aitken family also had a mill at Irwell Vale and gave this house to be used as a sanatorium early in the 20th century, when it became known as the ‘Aitken Sanatorium’. In the early 1970s the sanatorium closed and it became known as ‘Darul-Uloom’, the Islamic Training Centre.[Goldthorpe page 54]
The Ramsbottom Cottage Hospital erected by T. Aitken and opened in 1900 is named ‘The Aitken Memorial and Jubilee Cottage Hospital after the donor. The Aitken Tubercular Sanatorium, formerly Holcombe Hall was presented to the Ramsbottom Joint Hospital Board in 1909 by the late Mrs A. and Mr T. Aitken. [Ramsbottom The Official Guide 1957/8]
In 1971 The Ramsbottom Cottage Hospital was used as an orthopaedic unit. [Ramsbottom Official Guide 1971/2] R. Cottage Hospital closed 2008 – [Kath]