GARDEN MILL
Became GARDEN ENGINEERING WORKS
Garden Street, Ramsbottom
c1860 Built
1861 Lawrence Stead & Bros – cotton manufacturing – Garden Mill, Ramsbottom [Drake]
1971 Lawrence Stead & Bros – cotton spinners & manufacturers – Garden Mill, Hope Mill & Irwell Bridge Mill [Worrall]
In the ‘Date of Build’ Register there is an entry relating to Lawrence Stead and Henry Stead 1873 - Garden Street – GLE Lease 88. In this case the date of the lease was perhaps NOT the date of build.
1888 Lawrence Stead & Bros – Garden, Hope, Nuttall Lane Irwell Bridge and Railway Mill. [Slater]
1891 on the O/S Map the site is named and marked as Garden Mill (cotton).
Hume Elliot makes reference to Garden Mill – ‘speaking of the graveyard of St Pauls....more than a generation ago there were many little tended gardens of flowers and shrubs within the old farm area – transmitted to our memory in names such as Garden Mill and Garden Street...’ [Elliot page 109]
1896 John Wood Engineers bought the whole of Garden Mill. [info from Kate Slingsby]
Previous to this John Wood operated at Railway foundry, Railway Street [Slater 1888] This was the site that later became The Empire Cinema.
1908 It was named and marked on the map as ‘GARDEN ENGINEERING WORKS’.
1909 [Kelly] John Wood engineers, Garden Street.
1910 John Wood owner/occupier Iron Foundry Garden Street (listed after house No:10) [Valuation List PUB 8/164 Bury Archives] Also owner John Wood. Occupier Marchant Birtwistle office Garden Street.
1924 John Wood engineers are listed at Garden Street. [Kelly]
1948 In the Ramsbottom Official Guide for this year there is an advertisement for this company:
‘John Wood (Engineers) Ltd, Garden Engineering Works, Ramsbottom. – Makers of and specialists in all machinery used in bleaching dyeing and printing calicoes. Wallpaper machines, photogravure machine. Tel Ramsbottom 2237/8.
GARDEN MILL/GARDEN ENGINEERING WORKS
1951 In Ramsbottom Festival 1951 Souvenir Handbook there is a short article about John Wood engineers:
‘John Wood (Engineers) Limited was founded in 1881, by John Wood, who specialised in the construction of Printing Machines of various types. From this small beginning has grown the present progressive business which supplies machines for the printing of Textiles, Multi-colour Photogravure and Wall-paper, all over the world. ‘Rosebank’ and other well-known fabrics are printed on ‘John Woods’ machines.
Great developments have been made in photogravure Printing Press. The present range of Multi-coloured Presses installed at the Sun Printers Limited, Watford constitutes the largest battery of this class of machinery in the world; from this are produced magazines and periodicals such as ‘The Picture Post’ by the million. A special Press has been supplied to the same firm this year for the printing of the ‘Festival of Britain’ Handbooks’.
1959 Wood’s Engineers (Ramsbottom) Ltd took over or developed from J. Wood (Engineers) [info from Kate Slingsby].
1969 In the Ramsbottom Official Guide for this year there is an advertisement for Woods although the name has now changed to Wood’s Engineers (Ramsbottom) Ltd.
No advert in 1971 Official Guide
1997 The company closed. A London firm, Hubert Jones (based in Salford) owned it at the time. [information from Kate Slingsby]
One of Wood’s machines in on display at the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry. [ibid]
Wood’s old pattern shop, pattern store, engineers’ stores and the stables were across the road, occupying another large site. The workforce was probably as many as 200 at its peak.[ibid] (Is it possible that this site ‘across the road’ was Grove Mill site? – Kath)
Hambletons Storage and Removals acquired the site (don’t have any date for this) and are still there today (2008).Also part of building now occupied by Formulated Polymer Products.
Photographs show the original stonework forming part of the walls of Hambletons building (below the metal cladding)
In the information from Kate she states that ‘1830-1840 Garden Mill was used for weaving , but I don’t think the mill was built at this time.