Roach Mill Heywood

Roach mill was built next to the River Roach in a steeply sloping valley. The first mill on the small area of flat land in the valley bottom but the six-storey mill of 1860 was cut into the valley side. A water-driven corn mill had been built on the site on the before 1637 when it was owned by Roger Makon, whose family also owned nearby farmland. By 1762 Makin Mill was being used for fulling woollen cloth. In 1780 the mill was acquired by Peel, Yates and Co. and converted to cotton spinning. It was rebuilt in the 1860s, and by 1880 the mill was in the ownership of Roach Spinning and Manufacturing Company Limited with 43000 spindles. In 1924 the company installed a new engine and in 1926-1924 built a new top floor to the main mill. Closed 1959. Demolished 1983

FROM WATER.WHEEL TO CORLISS ENGINE - The Roach Mill Spinning and Manufacturing Company, Limited. Heywood. have placed an order for a new engine and rope driving with a well-known Oldham firm of machinists. The mill. once the property of the first Sir Robert Peel, was originally driven by a water-wheel. Then a water turbine was installed. followed by a beam engine. and afterwards a high-speed engine. Now the motive power is to be a slow speed cross compound horizontal Corliss engine. [Cotton Factory Times 7 March 1924 page 3]*

In their half-yearly report, the directors of the Roach Mills Spinning and Manufacturing Company, Heywood, reported that during the last half-year a new storey has been built on the main portion of the mill, and will shortly be ready for the installation of machinery. This will give a largely increased production and reduce production costs more than proportionate to the outlay. [Rochdale Observer - Saturday 13 November 1926 page 12]

* Recent research indicates that the new engine was Buckley and Taylor 1200ihp compound engine.

Reference    Builder 9 April 1927 Page 621
Reference    Rochdale Observer - Saturday 13 November 1926 page 12 
Reference    Cotton Factory Times 25 February 1927 page 3 - New storey for winding and beaming department completed
Reference    Cotton Factory Times 29 April 1927 page 4 – winding frames installed in new storey