The Cheesden Valley in Greater Manchester is one of the most exceptional and evocative places I have ever visited.

The scene of the valley above is idyllic, though some might object to the presence of the chimney. But, I don’t want you to be put off by the industrial tag associated with the chimney and the other remnants that survive here. They have given rise to a secluded and singular landscape that makes the soul sing.

If we were to replace the chimney with the teetering gable of a medieval abbey, instead of wheelpits, scouring stations and the solitary call of the curlew, there might be car parks, information boards and the shrill ring of the ice-cream van.

These buildings mostly pre-date the industrial era we are familiar with - built in the local vernacular and spliced into the brooks and valleys to harness the power of water. They grew alongside farms and communities, forming small parts of the wider putting-out system, where people, mostly women, worked handlooms in the lofts of their own homes.

And so the brick-topped sandstone chimney at Washwheel Mill - now a sanctuary for owls - is of this place, not imposed upon it. Its sandstone was quarried half a mile away; its bricks were likely fired in kilns little more than a mile beyond that.

When I get up close to some of the mills, I might as well be standing within the bounds of Fountains or Rievaulx - buildings that were themselves cogs in their own industrious machines devoted to wool.

Remains of the mill at Deeply Vale in the Cheesden Valley

There was a time, over a thousand years ago, when the Anglo-Saxon turned his nose up at the cracking coffered ceilings, tilting columns and flooded amphitheatres of imperial Rome, much as we do now with our industrial heritage. Every time I visit this place, another gable has fallen, another stone has disappeared, and I realise it is time to stand in awe of these places.

No doubt, a thousand years from now, people will look back with envy at the moment I’m having here today - just as we look back at the Anglo-Saxon, oblivious to the embarrassment of Roman riches around him.

Cheesden in Winter

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