IRWELL VALE MILL
Irwell Vale Mill is covered comprehensively in John Simpsons Book – The History of Edenfield & District.
1832 Built by John Bowker original owner of the fulling mill. [Goldthorpe page 131]
John Bowker also built Hardsough Mill. Irwell Vale Mill stood on part of the Ravenshore Estate that Bowker had bought in two parts in 1806 and 1813. [Simpson page 92]
Advertisement in Manchester Guardian January 1932:
Water Power Mill – To Be Let with immediate possession, a New Substantial Stone Building four stories high, 41 yards long and 16 yards wide, with water wheels etc, a supply of water equal to 30 horses’ power in the driest seasons. Situated in the Vale of the Irwell, near Edenfield, fifteen miles from Manchester – For further particulars apply Mr Bowker, Prestwich...
1833 Mr Bowker is listed as owner of the new mill with Mr Kelsall as tenant. [Irwell Reservoir Scheme]
First tenant was Henry Kilshaw [Simpson page 92] (Maybe this name and the Kelsall mentioned above are the same person but the spelling of the name has been mixed up? – Kath). Henry Kilshaw went bankrupt in 1837 – he had married Isabel Aitken, the daughter of Thomas Aitken from Chatterton Mill. In fact, Thomas Aitken took over at Irwell Vale, firstly in partnership with James Stott and Thomas Smith (Haslingden woollen manufacturers, who also operated at Dearden Clough Mill and after 1839 with his son John Aitken. [Simpson page 93]
Thomas Aitken formerly ran Chatterton Mill and lived at Chatterton House, which was just opposite the mill. When he moved his business to Irwell Vale Mill he went to live at Great Hey. [RHS Magazine No:15 1997 C. Tweedale]
Thomas Aitken is referred to as an early tenant of Irwell Vale Mill and later owner of both the mill and the village. Also a reference to the initials TA on a village sign and Bowker Street, named after John Bowker who was the original owner of the mill and the village. [Goldthorpe page 103]
1850 Thomas’s son John ran Irwell Vale Mill [Heap]
Thomas Aitken died in 1858. [Aitken family tree].
1861 and 1871 Thomas Aitken & Sons – cotton spinners and manufacturers were listed at Irwell Vale Mill [Drake & Worrall].
The firm specialised as makers of cotton sailcloth and felt for paper making. [RHS Mag No:15 1997 page 3 - C. Tweedale]
His elder son John (born at Ravenshore) continued the business at Irwell Vale but retired about 1874. He died in 1877. He was a Captain in the 57th Lancashire Rifle Volunteers (Ramsbottom) living and dying at Elton Banks House. John’s descendants did not work at the mills. The only Aitken linked to the mills in the 20th century was the younger Thomas, John’s brother. Thomas lived at Holcombe Hall. (see also Chatterton Mill). He later moved to Flintshire, where he died in in 1911. He was married twice but had no children. [RHS Mag No:15 1997 page 3 - C. Tweedale]
1871 John Aitkin Esq - Elton Banks, Edenfield [Worrall]
Following the death of Thomas in 1911 and his wife, May, in 1915 the business passed to her cousin Margaret Gray – she transformed it into a private limited company in 1918. The other shareholders were James W. Cunliffe, manager of the mill, who became Managing Director, William Haslam, cashier and Samuel Woodcock, solicitor.
After the deaths of Margaret Gray in 1930 and James Cunliffe in 1933 the mill was run by James Cunliffe’s son-in-law, John Dewhurst and his sons, until it closed in 1957. [Simpson page 94]
In his article, C. Tweedale says that ‘ though the Aitkens could not resist the national decline in the textile industry, they were unaffected by the world wars of this century {20thc}, unlike the nearby Turnbull & Porritt families’. [RHS Mag No:15 1997 page 3 - C. Tweedale]
There is a datestone on the former Spring Bank Mill, Blackburn Road – TA & S Ltd 1940 – here they wound cones for Irwell Vale Mill (Earlier it had been a brewery and is now Brown & Forth Ltd chemicals) [RHS Mag No:15 1997 page 3 - C. Tweedale]
After the mill closed the buildings were bought by W & E Products, the Ramsbottom soap making firm and they stayed until 2001 when it was taken over by Sigma Soap Ltd. [Simpson page 95]
Some buildings demolished during 1980s although the later red-brick building still used as a soap works (1990s). Datestone on the red brick building TA & S Ltd
1952 The simple circular stone chimney remained until late1980s. [Goldthorpe page104 & 132]
Article in RHS Magazine No:15 Autumn 1997 entitls The Aitken Family – Millowners and Philanthropists by Clyde Tweedale.