Friday 13 September 2013

Fences around Hopes Carr


When I posted recently about the Air Disaster Memorials at Hopes Carr I wrote
The area has remained virtually untouched since the disaster but an area regeneration plan conceived in 2008 planned the creation of 350 apartments and 5000 sqm of commercial space with the memorials being moved to a "peace garden" overlooking the Hempshaw Valley. So far only 46 new homes have been built in the area and the memorials remain where they are.
Things have moved on since then and fences have been erected around the site and access to the site for anyone apart from contractors and their employees is blocked off.


This is the view from the opposite side of the site from Orchard Street off Lavanders Brow. The first factory built here in 1759 was a silk mill powered by watermill on Hempshaw Brook. It was bought by Charles Davies in 1781 who added new buildings and moved production over to cotton spinning. By the 1790s it was owned by Thomas Hope who gave his name to the area and built additional mills, a tannery, hat works and workers' houses. Higher Carr Mill was demolished by 1907 but Lower Carr Mill continued to be used for cotton spinning until the 1930s.

A contribution to Friday Fences.

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