Now a little bit of Congleton’s history went on display at the public library today.
It was the last part of an exhibition which recorded the town’s history and focused particularly on its industrial past and the textile mill by the river at Mill Green.
This was the Old Mill opened in 1752 on the bank of the river Dane by Mr Clayton.
Mindful of the opportunities the Corporation granted him the land between the Dane Bridge and the King’s Corn Mill at a low rent for the next 300 years.
Within 40 years his was the largest mill in the town employing over 600 people and was followed by other mills which made good use of the small streams that flowed through the town.
But Mr Clayton’s Mill was always the most important and continued in business till its closure in 1998 and demolition five years later.
Part of that site has now been developed by McCarthy and Stone who specialize in retirement homes.
They were particularly interested in having a permanent exhibition featuring the history of the area and approached me and Peter Topping to research write and illustrate the project.
Now given that we had already done something similar for their Chorlton development it seemed an obvious new venture.
The finished two panels telling the story including Peter’s painting of the new development went on permanent display in the foyer of the building in February and today we handed to the public library a second set of panels commissioned by McCarthy and Stone telling more of the story of Mill Green and Congleton.
All of which just leaves me to point you in the direction of the library in Market Street and thank the staff who were most helpful.
Picture; of the finished display in the library by Peter Topping
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| Peter and the exhibition |
This was the Old Mill opened in 1752 on the bank of the river Dane by Mr Clayton.
Mindful of the opportunities the Corporation granted him the land between the Dane Bridge and the King’s Corn Mill at a low rent for the next 300 years.
Within 40 years his was the largest mill in the town employing over 600 people and was followed by other mills which made good use of the small streams that flowed through the town.
But Mr Clayton’s Mill was always the most important and continued in business till its closure in 1998 and demolition five years later.
Part of that site has now been developed by McCarthy and Stone who specialize in retirement homes.
They were particularly interested in having a permanent exhibition featuring the history of the area and approached me and Peter Topping to research write and illustrate the project.
Now given that we had already done something similar for their Chorlton development it seemed an obvious new venture.
The finished two panels telling the story including Peter’s painting of the new development went on permanent display in the foyer of the building in February and today we handed to the public library a second set of panels commissioned by McCarthy and Stone telling more of the story of Mill Green and Congleton.
All of which just leaves me to point you in the direction of the library in Market Street and thank the staff who were most helpful.
Picture; of the finished display in the library by Peter Topping
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