Lymefield & Broad Mills Heritage Site 2025

Broad Mills was the location of textile mill buildings built and developed from 1802 and by 1824 included three large cotton spinning mills. The mills closed in 1860 because of the ‘Cotton Famine’, re-opening in 1870 under different ownership for textile production and closing again in the late 1920s during the depression; after which part of the mills were used as a saw mill and carpet factory. In 1949 fire damage resulted in the demolition of the greater part of the mill complex. Alongside the pond are parts of the waterwheel structure, water channels and arches which provided power to the mills. Throughout the site there are other remnants of the mill structures all explained by annotated notice boards sited along the paths, explaining about the heritage and wildlife of the site.

Contacts

Address: Lymefield Broadbottom Greater Manchester

Website: View website

Open Days & Times

Access at all times. Visit website for more details.

Travel

By Rail: Broadbottom / 800 yards

Facilities

Part disabled access

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The area has since been transformed and now combines managed woodland countryside with its industrial heritage. Where once were weaving sheds, wildflowers bloom and attract butterflies, a large variety of insects, bees and grasshoppers. Trees have taken over the sites of the mills, the woodlands are now home to birds such as woodpeckers, great tits and chaffinches.

The wasteland that Broad Mills (formerly Broadbottom Mills) became has been sympathetically transformed, where heritage and countryside live side by side in tranquil harmony.