Description
Water powered mills on the line of Lumbutts Clough in Causey Wood. Oldroyd Mill, about 1912, the last mill to be powered by water from Lumbutts Clough. The manager's house is attached to the left of the building. The mill chimney in the far distance is that of Woodhouse Mill.
Walking round the Todmorden district, especially up the various cloughs, the remains of many early spinning mills can be seen. The early mills, perhaps only two or three storeys high, and built by the clough side, utilised the water to power their spinning frames. Traces of the water wheel or wheel pit (as at Waterstalls), a clow or perhaps an overgrown mill dam, point to the development of water power and consequent increase in production. In the Lumbutts area, a succession of mills down Folly Wood used the same water, one mill often having to wait until the mill above had finished with the water.