New Cotton Mill Farington

Reference    Manchester Guardian Saturday 7 September 1867 Page 6 (Contracts)
Reference    Manchester Guardian Saturday 14 September 1867 Page 6 (Contracts)

Farington Mill No 1 was unlike any local mill that had gone before: essentially it was a huge spinning mill with rail links and a planned mill village - on a greenfield site. Work was underway on William Bashall’s new mill in 1834-5, and spinning was underway in July 1836. At the same time the new railway line from Preston to Wigan was laid out alongside the mill. Thus, although the new mill was rather remotely located in the fields to the south of Preston it was to shortly have superb rail links  with the whole the country, since this was to become a link in the main west coast railway from London to Glasgow. New streets of houses sprung up, all owned by the firm, a large mill school was opened in 1843, and the partners William Bashall and William Boardman built themselves large villas. The mill was progressively extended, employing 1000 people and running 60,000 spindles by 1860, and Bashall made enormous profits from it – ploughing cash into his collection of paintings. In 1905 the mill was taken over by G & R Dewhurst, which duly became an enormous combine which also ran Higher Walton and Cuerden. Farington Mill closed in 1967, and has largely been demolished though the rows of mill houses survive.