Mellor Mill in Stockport, England

When it was built between 1790 and 1793 by industrialist Samuel Oldknow, Mellor Mill was the largest spinning mill ever constructed, and it was also quite an imposing structure by the standards of the early Industrial Revolution. Located a rural area south of Manchester, the textile mill was six stories high and had an original length of 210 feet, later extended to 400 feet. It was initially water-powered, and it contained a single massive wheel in its basement called the Wellington Wheel that was 22 feet in diameter and 17.5 feet wide, with additional water wheels added later on.

In 1860, the power source was switched to steam. Aside from the mill itself, Oldknow also constructed several other buildings in the area, including a corn mill and the mansion in which he lived. He also significantly altered the flow of the nearby River Goyt, resulting in the creation of a series of millponds now called the Roman Lakes, which are used locally for recreation.

Unfortunately, a fire gutted the interior of Mellor Mill in 1892, and the manufacturing facilities were never rebuilt. In the subsequent decades, the mill’s remaining walls and many of the other adjacent buildings were demolished, and nothing new was built at the site. Today, the ruins of Mellor Mill lie within a quiet park. People who travel to this rural area can walk around its remaining foundations, including the massive wells where the Wellington Wheel and other water wheels were located, but they are left to use their imagination to picture the immense brick industrial structure that once towered over this site.