Collier Brook Bolt House

Collier Brook Bolt House is a bolt works built in 1856, with later alterations and additions from 1897 and 1899. It was established for the manufacture of nails and bolts for railway wagons. The building is constructed of brick and features Welsh and local slate roofs. It has a varied T-shaped layout, consisting of a forge that adjoins a storeyed storage block, both aligned north-south. To the west is a large screw-boring workshop, and to the east is a finishing and polishing shed.

The forge is a notable survival, with walls that have cambered-arched openings fitted with grilles and a continuous louvre for ventilation, along with some later roof lights on the west slope. Inside, there are six forges, each topped with a tall tapering brick stack that extends through the roof slopes. There is vehicle delivery access to the south under the same roof. The building features a heavy timber king post roof.

Attached to the forge is a simple two-storey warehouse that includes a taking-in doorway with a boarded door and wagon pulley, as well as three large windows set under cambered arches. The ground-level doorway has been altered. The seven-bay screw-boring workshop has a queen post and king strut roof, with evidence of a former axial drive shaft. The polishing workshop has a wide queen post roof, and the windows throughout are of a standard design with two lights.

The factory continues to operate for its original purpose and is exceptional because all processing units have survived, including the forge, which, despite some alterations and patching, is of a higher structural standard than typically found in small industrial sites of this period. It is rare for such forges to remain intact with individual forges still in place. Bolt and nail production was the principal industry in Atherton during the 19th century, and Collier Brook Works is the only surviving factory of its type in the region.