Нью-Милс: Город в Дербишире, Англия

Town in Derbyshire, England

New Mills is a town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England, 8 mile (13 km) south east of Stockport and 13 mile (21 km) from Manchester at the confluence of the River Goyt and Sett. It is close to the border with Cheshire and above the Torrs, a 70 feet (21 m) deep gorge cut through carboniferous sandstone, on the north western edge of the Peak District National Park. New Mills has a population of approximately 12,000, in a civil parish which includes the villages and hamlets of Whitle, Thornsett, Hague Bar, Rowarth, Brookbottom, Gowhole and Birch Vale. New Mills was first noted for coal mining, then for cotton spinning, bleaching and calico printing. It was served by the Peak Forest Canal, three railway lines and the A6 trunk road. Redundant mills were bought up in the mid twentieth century by sweet manufacturer Swizzels Matlow. New Mills was a stronghold of Methodism. New Mills is twinned with Alsfeld, Germany, and a road is named in honour of its twin town called Alsfeld Way.

New Mills is approximately 182 mile (293 km) NNW of London and 8 mile (13 km) south east of Stockport. It borders on Disley, in Cheshire, and Marple, in the Stockport Metropolitan Borough in Greater Manchester. The town is on the north western edge of the Peak District, but only the eastern part of the parish is within the official boundaries of the National Park. The town includes the hamlets of Thornsett, Hague Bar, Rowarth, Brookbottom, Gowhole, and most of Birch Vale. Various parts of the town are given local names: Eaves Knoll (north western part between Brook Bottom Road and Castle Edge Road); High Lee (northern part between Castle Edge Road and the River Sett); Hidebank (the area on the eastern side of the River Sett and north and west of the A6015); Low Leighton (the area south and east of the A6015); and Torr Top (the area around the confluence of the rivers). At its lowest point the parish is about above sea level, but the valley sides rise to at the highest points above Rowarth. The watercourses to the north, particularly the Rowarth Brook, drain the southward slopes of Mellor Moor, Cown Edge and Lantern Pike. The Sett and its tributary the Kinder drain much of the plateau of Kinder Scout; the Sett flows through Hayfield before passing through Birch Vale to the Torrs and the River Goyt. The Goyt rises on the moors of Axe Edge, near the River Dane and the Cat and Fiddle Inn between Buxton and Macclesfield. It passes through Whaley Bridge, where it is joined by the Todd Brook and the Black Brook from Chapel en le Frith. The sides of the Goyt valley have been used to carry two railway lines, the Peak Forest Canal and the A6 trunk road from London to Carlisle via Manchester; these all pass through New Mills. Geologically speaking, New Mills lies in the north–south orientated syncline known as the Goyt Trough. The base rocks are from the Carboniferous period, with underlying Namurian gritstone sandstones, from 333 M a. to 313 M a. Above there are coal measures present (Langsettian from 312 M a.). This was folded in the Variscan orogeny into the Goyt Trough syncline. Coal has been mined at over 30 locations in the area, including Pingot Pit. There are three narrow seams of coal present: the Red Ash, Little Mine and the Yard Seam. The Yard Coal is so named because that is the average thickness of the seam; it is the lowest seam and rests on Woodhead Hill Sandstone. In these seams lead ore has also been extracted. Beardmoor Colliery, Ollersett or Burnt Edge Colliery and Lee or New Mills Colliery all worked the seam. of coal weighs about half an imperial ton, and the Yard Seam would produce 4,500 tons per acre. Bigrave Edge or Broadmoor Edge Colliery worked the Red Ash seam, which was only thick. The syncline was buried in younger rocks of the Tertiary Period. These were eroded, not least by the scouring of the ice age ice sheets and the pressures of the meltwaters when temperatures rose. New Mills was on the margins of glaciation, and the meltwaters sought additional routes under the ice for run off. They exploited faults and crevices in the underlying rock. In the Torrs Gorge, the Rivers Goyt and Sett cut a new channel into the strata of the Woodhead Hill Sandstone which forms the centre of New Mills. A mantle of glacial sediment, principally gravels, covered the whole of the braided valleys. In the Pleistocene period, of 12.9 k a to 11.6 k a, the rivers re formed into single channels, and meanders were formed. These became very distorted above the constrictions of the gorges. Down cutting occurred, exposing previous layers, creating terraces that were covered with silty clay alluvium. There is also a history of iron working, though this has ceased. Ironstone was also found in shales of the lower coal measures, and early water powered charcoal furnaces were located at Gow Hole furnace towards Furness Vale. In the 19th century, the Midland Iron Works occupied Barnes Mill in the Torrs; the Victoria Foundry was on Hyde Bank Road (among their products were gas lamp posts for the town council) as was the other small foundry in Wilde's scrapyard. On Albion Road in Newtown is John Hawthorn's foundry. There was also a brass foundry, on the site of the current Heritage Centre. Tourism was boosted in 1984 when the Torrs was reopened as a riverside park, and further when the Millennium Walkway opened in 1999, joining the two ends of the gorge. The Plain English Campaign has its headquarters in the town. Since 2015, New Mills has had a commercial microbrewery, Torrside Brewing, located within an industrial unit at New Mills Marina.

New Mills sits above The Torrs, a dramatic gorge through which the Rivers Goyt and Sett flow. In a bend of the Goyt is Torr Vale Mill, a Grade II* listed building. The Torrs Millennium Walkway, overlooking the mill, was built at a cost of £525,000 (with almost half provided by the Millennium Commission) by Derbyshire County Council's in house engineers. The walkway spans the otherwise inaccessible cliff wall above the River Goyt. Part rises from the riverbed on stilts and part is cantilevered off the railway retaining wall. It provided the final link in the 225 mile (362 km) Midshires Way (here following the Goyt Way) and was opened in April 2000. Torrs Hydro is a diameter screw turbine at the Torr Weir on the Goyt. The "Reverse Archimedean Screw" micro hydroelectric scheme generates 50 kW of electricity. Nicknamed "Archie", it is owned by the community. The electricity is supplied to the local Co operative supermarket and any excess is fed back into the National Grid.

The area around Mellor and New Mills has a strong Methodist tradition. John Wesley first preached in the area in 1740, at a sheepfold at the Bongs in neighbouring Mellor. He visited again on 28 April 1745, 12 May 1747 and 31 August 1748. The Wesleyan Methodists were established in 1748. At first, meetings were held in people's homes; then land was bought on the High Street for a Wesleyan chapel in 1766. The hamlets of Bowden Middlecale and Mellor were originally in the ancient parish of Glossop. Chapelries were established at Mellor and Hayfield, and New Mills was split between the two. The Church of England parish church of St George's was built in 1829–30 to a simple renaissance plan with galleries; it has seven bays, decorated with simple Gothic style lancet windows. In 1844, the hamlets of Beard, Ollersett, Thornsett and Whitle became a parish. The Anglican church of St James the Less was designed by William Swinden Barber in 1880. It became redundant, was restored in 2012, and became Spring Bank Arts Centre. The Church of the Annunciation, St. Mary's Road, is the Roman Catholic church. It is in the parish of St Mary's, Marple Bridge and New Mills in the Diocese of Nottingham. The building was built in the Decorated Gothic style in 1846; its spire is 110 feet (34 m) tall.

New Mills is served by two railway stations: New Mills Central on the Hope Valley Line, on the north bank of the River Goyt, and New Mills Newtown on the Buxton Line, which runs on the south bank on the contour. The main Manchester to Sheffield 'fast' line passes through between the town centre and Newtown, bypassing both stations. It emerges from the Disley Tunnel on a lower contour than the canal on the south bank, crosses the Goyt on a viaduct and is joined by the Hope Valley Line at New Mills South Junction. Until January 1970, a short branch of the Midland Railway led from New Mills Central station to ; this route's closure was one of the last recommended in 1963 by Richard Beeching's rationalisation programme. It is now the Sett Valley Trail, a shared use path running for 2 1/2 miles north east out of the town.

New Mills town centre and bus station is served by several bus services operated by High Peak and Stagecoach Manchester. High Peak operate the 60 to Macclesfield and Hayfield, the 61 north to Glossop via Hayfield or south to Buxton via Whaley Bridge and the 389, which serves various points in and around the town. Stagecoach operates one service in the town, the 358, which runs from Stockport to Hayfield via Marple. Another High Peak service, the 199, also serves Newtown throughout the day, with four early morning services into the town centre, and runs from Buxton to Manchester Airport via Stockport.

The A6 passes through Newtown, running close to the Buxton railway line; it travels north towards Stockport and Manchester, and south towards Chapel en le Frith and Buxton. The main road running through New Mills is the A6015, which connects it to the A6 and to Hayfield. The B6101 also connects the town to neighbouring Marple.

The Peak Forest Canal was watered in 1796. It passes through Newtown, where there is a marina, following the contour.

New Mills Town Council hosts a free bonfire and fireworks display in High Lea Park during November, which in 2013 attracted an estimated 3,000 people. New Mills also plays host to the One World Festival every year, also in High Lea Park. The biggest event in the town's cultural calendar is New Mills Festival. Held during the last two weeks of September, it is two weeks of talks, walks, gigs, concerts, exhibitions, sport, competitions with a lantern procession and street party on the last Saturday.

Regional TV news comes from Salford based BBC North West and ITV Granada. Television signals are received from the Winter Hill and one of the two local relay transmitters (Birch Vale and Ladder Hill). Local radio stations are BBC Radio Manchester on 95.1 FM and High Peak Radio on 106.6 FM. The town's local newspapers are the Buxton Advertiser and the Manchester Evening News.

The principal secondary school is New Mills School. This comprehensive school occupies the buildings of the former New Mills Grammar School and educates children from 11 to 16 years of age; its sixth form closed in 2018. There are six primary schools: St. George's School (CE), St. Mary's (RC), New Mills County Primary, Newtown, Hague Bar and Thornsett.

New Mills town centre has been designated a Conservation Area, originally established in 1985, although it has been extended several times since then. Currently, the Conservation Area extends to encompass the Jodrell Street, Spring Bank and High Lea areas of the town. High Peak Borough Council have produced a Conservation Area Character Appraisal document, outlining the reasons that the Conservation Area has been designated as such. In justifying the reasons for designation, this document states of the town: "New Mills is a town of dramatic topography and origins that date back to the 14th century. Its topography and the supply of fast flowing waters led to its development as a thriving mill town and important centre for the textile industry. Its impressive landscape developed much of its developed form and the townscape that we still see today."

New Mills A. F. C. ('The Millers') are the local football team and play in the North West Counties League. The football ground at Church Lane boasts two pitches — one 'all weather' — and floodlights. New Mills Cricket Club, with their ground on Church Road, play in the Derbyshire and Cheshire League. There is a leisure centre, including a swimming pool, which opened in 1980. Until the early 1980s, the town held an annual cycle race. New Mills Golf Club is a members' club set on the top of the northerly hill overlooking the town, with views of Kinder Scout, the city of Manchester and the Welsh mountains. The course was formed in 1907 and extended to its current 18 hole, 5,604 yard par 69 course in 2002 before the clubhouse extension and centenary celebration in 2007.