Clarence Mill

Clarence Mill is a cotton mill, originally constructed around 1830, with extensions added in 1854 and around 1900 for the Brooks Swindells partnership. The core of the building is built from hammer-dressed sandstone, with a green and Welsh slate roof, and features a tall red brick mill chimney. The canal frontage comprises 51 bays. The central 20 bays, representing the original mill core, have 4 and 6 pane wooden casement windows. A 15-bay extension to the left, dated 1854, contains similar windows and a rusticated elliptical headed doorway inscribed “BROOKS SWINDELLS 1854”. A one-storey extension at the left end towards the canal also features a rusticated opening. Sixteen bays to the right have orange, gauged, and rubbed brick headed openings. A projecting, six-stage water tower, including a staircase, is located to the left and incorporates clasping square pilasters and triple round-headed lights to the stairs; it has a hipped mansard roof. The rest of this section has 9-pane windows. A one-storey engine house with semi-circular headed windows sits to the right. Described as a "fine example of a mid-19th century cotton mill" by Ashmore in The Industrial Archaeology of North-West England (1982), the mill's history is further detailed in Cotton Town: Bollington and the Swindells Family by the Wilmslow Historical Society (1973).