My response to this week's Photojournalism assignment was to explore Helmshore Textile Museum. Situated in the heart of Lancashire you will find one of Rossendale Valley's most fascinating historic attractions. This site comprises of two Mills, Higher Mill and Whittaker Mill to form Helmshore Textile Museum. A tour of this site takes you on a journey that explores the production of cloth from the eighteenth century through to the mid twentieth century when production stopped at the mill.
On the tour you are presented with the historic role that Lancashire played in the industrial revolution. I found that it wasn't necessarily the production of cloth that intrigued me but the machinery that was invented to produce said cloth. It was this engineering that made Great Britain the world leader it was.
I found myself drawn to the intricacies of the machinery. In today's world where there is a constant race to make items smaller and cheaper, it's good to remind ourselves where it all began. These four images are prime examples.
However, it wasn't all plain sailing for those that worked in these mills. There was a real risk of death. This was either by entanglement with machinery (limbs were regularly lost,) or by fire. Cotton had to be kept extremely dry, it would only take a small spark from the machinery to start a blaze.
Before electricity became the main power source for the machinery water was used. This entailed having a reservoir of water close to the mill to power a water wheel that in turn powered machinery through a pulley system. The image below shows the reservoir behind the mill.
With any industry there has to be a good transport system. There was no difference at Helmshore Mills. The old rail tracks and infrastructure can still be seen next to the mill and through the village.
In 1860 Helmshore was the site of a railway crash. 100 passengers were injured and eleven lost their lives. The accident happened between Helmshore and Ramsbottom, where 16 carriages broke free from a stationery train stopped at Helmshore Station. The carriages sped 400 yard down the track and were hit by an oncoming train from Ramsbottom
The above images are what's left of the railway line between Ogden Viaduct and Helmshore Railway Station, the scene of the 1860 crash.
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