PROGRESS MILL
Irwell Street.
Built about 1862.
Disused 1891 and merged with Irwell Foundry building by 1908. [O/S maps]
1862 Progress Mill Irwell Street GLE Lease 129 Hamer & Parkinson.
[ ‘Date of Build’ Register]
However in the 1861 Trade Directory [Drake] Hamer & Parkinson are listed as cotton manufacturers at Palatine Mill and Bolton Street Mill.
Palatine Mill and Albert Mill were the two mills which later became known as Rose Mill and were on the opposite side of Irwell Street.
In Kenneth Beetson’s Book Ramsbottom Volume2 1978 – there are some re-printed newspaper articles written in 1923 by T. Holden of Callender Street. This mill seems to be mentioned :
Relating to Square Lane - about 1858 William Sharples erected the engineering works which he successfully carried on for more than half a century .Below this was a spinning mill built by Thomas Wolstenholme and worked for some time by his brother Booth. Messrs Steads afterwards purchased the latter mill but never ran it. (he then goes on to talk about the lower portion of ROSE MILL which he describes as being ‘the mill on the opposite side of the street’)
This mill obviously had a short life.
On the 1891 O/S Map there is a ‘Cotton Mill (disused)’ on Irwell Street. It is sandwiched between the Railway Foundry which borders Railway Street and an ‘iron foundry’ which borders Square Street.
On the 1908 map, this cotton mill is no longer in existence – it has been merged with the iron foundry to become ‘Irwell Foundry (iron)’.
I assume that Progress Mill was the dis-used cotton mill marked on the 1891 O/S map.