Two of the most impressive mill engines in Lancashire are preserved at the Ellenroad Engine House near Rochdale. In 1890 the Ellenroad Spinning Company built a five-storey, 40-bay mill, designed by Stott & Son of Oldham, the most eminent textile mill architects of the time. It was 92 m long and 46 m wide, and was extended in 1899. It accommodated 99,756 mule spindles together with drawing frames and carding machines. Although it was supposedly of ‘fireproof’ construction it was severely damaged by a fire in 1916, and when rebuilt was adapted for ring spinning rather than mule spinning. The mill, like most cotton mills in Lancashire, was closed and demolished in 1982, but the separate engine house that accommodate two engines named Victoria and Alexandra, built by J & W McNaught of nearby Rochdale, was retained, and a trust was established in 1985 to ensure their continued preservation, and to open them to the public. There are regular steamings, now made possible by a biomass boiler.
Ellenroad Engine House Steam Museum
Elizabethan Row
Newhay
OL16 4LE Rochdale
Lancashire
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 7789 - 802632
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