Swimming Gala at the Mill Lodge in Higher Walton 1913.
If you look at the Ordnance Survey maps from the time, there are a couple of reservoirs around the Mills in the Higher Walton area. Looking at the position of the tower belonging to the Mill that still exists today, I am fairly certain that the Mill Lodge they are swimming in would be the one to the east of Moon’s Mill Foundry.
Cotton spinning had been established at Moon’s Mill, which the earlier name for the area now known as Higher Walton, by 1793. However, I think the Mill in that location wasn’t operating at the time of the gala. More information on a previous social media post of the image revealed that in the years before the First World War, Higher Walton held a regular mill lodge swimming gala. This image is courtesy of Stewart Hutchins, and captures one such event in 1913.
Interesting to note that Kittlingbourne was showing up as Kittlingburn on the earlier map (circa 1848). The later map (above) shows it as Kittlingborne, and the road sign of today has it as Kittlingbourne. Google Street View and Maps have it as Kittlingborne Brow.
A business directory from before the time of the older map shows a James Livesey to be the owner at Moon’s Mill. He is listed under the heading of COTTON MANUFACTURERS in the 1828-9 Pigot’s Directory. At the time of writing, the directory can be seen as part of the UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER Special Collections Online:
https://leicester.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16445coll4/id/233905
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G and R Dewhurst Ltd manufactured cotton at the Higher Walton Mill in Higher Walton at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The mill pond in which the swimming gala was taking place would have probably belonged to Dewhursts. Although, their operation was based on the other side of old Blackburn Road at that time. It’s possible that the reservoir was associated with an older mill or was used by the foundry. It is no longer there.
George Charnley Dewhurst was born in Leyland, Lancashire in 1808 and founded with his brother Richard, the firm of G. and R. Dewhurst, cotton agents and mill owners. I presume that Richard was born locally too.
As a final note, it is said that the mill pond (or reservoir) had been used for boating too.
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