Bollington Then & Now
Switch between old Ordnance Survey maps of Bollington, from around 1900 and the 1950s, and a map of today, or put two side by side. Ten stops tell the story of a cotton town built along a canal: tap one to read it, or walk the route yourself.
Ten stops in the story of Happy Valley
The stops run from the canal docks at Kerridge, past the old station to Lowerhouse, back into town past the viaduct to Clarence Mill, then up to White Nancy. That's about 5km, and the last part is a steep climb. Allow two to three hours, or make it two walks.
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1 · c.1830
Kerridge docks and the 1912 burst
Then: Find the canal on the south side of town, with a dock beside it where a stone tramway came down from the quarries on Kerridge Hill. The map marks a stone saw mill and a lime kiln beside it.
When the canal was new, around 1830, a wet dock and a dry dock were built here for a tramway bringing stone down from the Endon quarry. In the early hours of 29 February 1912 the towpath bank gave way almost opposite the docks. The canal drained for miles, and the water poured down Tinkers Clough, through the gas works and into the streets of the town. About 100 men worked for around three weeks to fill the hole.
Now: The docks are listed now, and the towpath here is part of a popular walk along the canal.
Have an old photo of Kerridge docks and the 1912 burst? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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2 · 1856
Adelphi Mill
Then: Look for the long mill beside the canal at Grimshaw Lane, where the canal crosses the lane on an aqueduct. By 1900 the map marks it as a silk mill.
The Swindells family, cotton spinners, built Adelphi Mill in 1856 and extended it in 1875: six storeys, with a turreted tower. By the 1890s George Swindells ran both this mill and Clarence Mill further along the canal. The canal crosses Grimshaw Lane here on a stone aqueduct designed around 1830 by William Crosley for the Macclesfield Canal Company.
Now: The mill is offices and businesses now. Step down to Grimshaw Lane to see the horseshoe-shaped arch of the aqueduct.
Have an old photo of Adelphi Mill? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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3 · 1869 · Lost
Bollington Station
Then: Find the railway just west of the canal, with the station on the north side of Grimshaw Lane and the goods yard on the south.
The Macclesfield, Bollington and Marple Railway opened in 1869, run jointly by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire and the North Staffordshire railways. The mill owner Thomas Oliver had pushed for it, hoping it would bring new life to the cotton mills, the Kerridge stone quarries and the Poynton coalfields.
Now: The line closed in January 1970 and the station was knocked down. The trackbed is now the Middlewood Way, a path for walking and cycling, and part of the old goods yard is its car park.
Have an old photo of Bollington Station? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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4 · 1810s
Lowerhouse Mill
Then: From the station, head west to Lowerhouse, a mill with its own little village of workers' cottages around it. The map still marks a gymnasium beside the mill, perhaps the one from Greg's day.
The Antrobus family built the mill in the 1810s, with about fifty cottages for the workers. In 1832 Samuel Greg junior, son of the founder of Quarry Bank Mill at Styal, took it over and tried to build a model community: gardens and allotments, a school and library, evening classes, baths and a gymnasium. He called the place Goldenthal, German for “happy valley”, and the name stuck: Bollington is still called Happy Valley. The experiment ended after new machinery caused a strike in 1847.
Now: The mill went on to make coated paper. Its last business closed in January 2025.
Have an old photo of Lowerhouse Mill? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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5 · 1886
Wellington Road Methodist Church
Then: Walk back into town along Wellington Road and look for the chapel with a tall spire.
William Waddington designed it in the style of a 13th-century Gothic church, with a tower and broach spire on one corner. Chapels like this were at the centre of life in the mill towns, with Sunday schools, choirs and outings.
Now: It closed for worship in 2012. Since 2016 the lower floor has been a childcare centre, and the building is listed.
Have an old photo of Wellington Road Methodist Church? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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6 · 1869
The viaduct
Then: Just past the chapel, follow the old railway as it crosses the valley of the River Dean on a long, curving viaduct. Beside it stands Waterhouse Mills, long since demolished, once known for spinning very fine cotton for lace makers in Nottingham and Brussels.
The stone viaduct was the biggest structure on the line, and most accounts count 23 arches. When the railway closed it was going to be demolished, but people in Bollington fought to keep it, with a petition, and it was saved.
Now: It carries the Middlewood Way high over the valley, with views across the rooftops to Kerridge Hill.
Have an old photo of The viaduct? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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7 · c.1830
Palmerston Street aqueduct
Then: Find where the canal crosses Palmerston Street high above the road, on a great bank of earth.
The canal has no locks all the way from Marple to Bosley, so here it had to cross the Dean valley on a tall embankment, with an aqueduct over the road. Local historians count this embankment and aqueduct as the biggest and most troublesome engineering on the whole canal. William Crosley designed the aqueduct around 1830, in local sandstone, with horseshoe-shaped arches.
Now: Traffic still passes under the arch, with the canal running overhead.
Have an old photo of Palmerston Street aqueduct? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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8 · 1830s
Clarence Mill
Then: Follow the canal north to the biggest mill in town, stretched out along the water.
Clarence Mill was Bollington's first mill built for steam rather than water power, and the first away from the river: the new canal could bring coal to its door. The Swindells family began it in the 1830s and kept adding to it. The long range you see today was built in 1877, the last cotton mill built in East Cheshire, and the chimney dates from 1914.
Now: There are flats upstairs and businesses below. The Bollington Discovery Centre inside, run by the Civic Society, tells the story of the town's mills and canal.
Have an old photo of Clarence Mill? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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9 · c.1935
The Holly Bush
Then: On Palmerston Street around 1900, a smaller, older pub stood on this spot.
It was rebuilt around 1935 in the “Brewer's Tudor” style breweries loved between the wars, borrowing the look of old timber-framed inns.
Now: It's a listed building now, as a rare, almost untouched example of the style: a bit of 1930s Tudor in a street of stone mill-town houses.
Have an old photo of The Holly Bush? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
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10 · 1817
White Nancy
Then: Look up at the ridge of Kerridge Hill, east of the town, for a small round building on the skyline.
John Gaskell junior of North End Farm built it in 1817 to celebrate the victory at Waterloo. It's a sugar-loaf shape about six metres high, with a ball on top. Inside was a single room with stone benches around a round stone table: a summerhouse with a view.
Now: The doorway was blocked up in the 20th century after vandalism, and it's repainted white every so often. A brass band plays up there at midday on Christmas Day. It's a steep climb, and you can see for miles.
Have an old photo of White Nancy? Send it in and it could appear here with your name on.
Know more about these places?
Did your family work at Clarence or Adelphi Mill? Do you remember the last trains over the viaduct? Send a memory, an old photo you own, or a correction, and the best ones will be added to the map with your name on.
About this map
Bollington Then & Now is part of a free local history project from Lime Fresh Design, a web design studio in Macclesfield. It's our way of giving something back to the area, and a small example of what a website can do for a museum, a history society or a local attraction.
Old maps: Ordnance Survey 25-inch, Cheshire, about 1900, and OS 1:10,560 National Grid, 1950s–60s, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland (CC-BY). Today: © OpenStreetMap contributors. Map: Leaflet. Dates and facts are from Historic England listings and published local histories; where sources disagree we've said so.