 For
centuries before 1775 New Mills consisted of scattered hill farms,
cottages and hamlets. This dispersed rural population made its living
from farming, small holding, spinning and weaving, with a few small
stone quarries and coal pits. Streams and rivers provided water
power for various mills. In the late eighteenth century with the
onset of the industrial revolution, there came a rapid and fundamental
change, newly constructed mills were introduced to the Torrs on
the banks of the two rivers and a new town quickly grew up. New
Mills became an important centre for cotton spinning, bleaching,
dyeing and printing. By 1819 there were eight spinning mills, two
printworks and two bleach works. Technical men, trained in New Mills,
have gone to all parts of the world where calico printing and bleaching
are known. As a centre for such work, New Mills also attracted people
from as far afield as Scotland to live and work. It was in New Mills
that John Potts in 1821 first conceived the idea of using methods
used by engravers in the Potteries for calico printing. His experiments
were successful and were the origin of the style of engraving rollers
for calico printing throughout Europe and America. From about the
middle of the nineteenth century steam power was introduced leading
to a new phase of mill building on the banks of the Peak Forest
Canal at Newtown.
Coal was worked in and around New Mills for centuries. The earliest
known date is 1599 but in the early eighteenth century much coal
was taken from shallow pits high up on Ollersett and Beard Moors.
As the nineteenth century got underway many new, deeper pits were
opened up as the demand grew from houses, mills and workshops. Eventually
there were over thirty small mines working on the hillside around
the town.
New Mills has a rich transport history dominated by bridges and
viaducts. Besides the Peak Forest Canal, which opened in 1796, and
a network of ancient paths and tracks, there are several turnpike
roads, two high level bridges over the Torrs, three railways and
the A6 - a major trunk road. A fourth railway - to Hayfield - was
closed in the 1960s.
The latest construction, the 2000 Torrs Millennium Walkway has created
an uninterrupted off road walking route from urban Greater Manchester
to the high moors of the Derbyshire Peak District.
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