Oldknow's Limekilns, including Canal Wagonway, Marple

Summary

Parts of a late-eighteenth century and early-nineteenth century lime works including a stone-fronted bank of brick limekilns built into rising ground and surviving as a partial stone facade with buried archaeological deposits and internal structures, and land at the foot of the kilns containing further buried structures and evidence of a horse-drawn wagonway serving the kilns. Also part of a related late-18th century canal wagonway, surviving as a curving raised earthwork.

Reasons for Designation

Oldknow’s Limekilns, a late-18 and early-C19 lime works and associated canal wagonway, are scheduled for the following principal reasons:

* Period: as an early example of an industrial-scale lime works, one specifically designed for integration with the canal also being developed at the time by its owner;

* Survival: the bank of at least twelve limekilns largely survives and is an impressive feature in the landscape, enhanced by the survival of a portion of the decorative façade, and with further surviving buried remains, including those of the works wagonway;

* Documentation: for the well-documented connection between the works and the pioneering railway engineer Benjamin Outram, who designed the wagonways for the works and canal, and the archaeological surveys which evidence the survival and significance of the remains.

* Group value: the bank of limekilns and works wagonway have strong historical functional links with the listed surviving buildings of the works (the former stables at 32 Strines Road, NHLE 1242481 and the former transhipment shed at Lime Kiln Farm, 30 Strines Road, NHLE 1259993), as well as the unlisted former transhipment shed at 20 Strines Road. The canal wagonway also has strong historical functional links with the works’ structures, and with the nearby first four locks of the staircase that superseded it (Marple Locks numbers 16 NHLE 1242450, 15 NHLE 1260016, 14 NHLE 1260015 and 13 NHLE 1242448).

History

Limestone has been used to make mortar from at least Roman times. Since the medieval period, lime has also been used as agricultural fertiliser and, since the early C19, widely used in a variety of other industries. ‘Quicklime’ is prepared by roasting limestones at high temperature to release carbon dioxide (calcining). By chemical reaction when mixed with water (slaking), quicklime can be turned into a stable powder. Although possibly emerging in the medieval period, draw kilns are well documented from the mid-C18, when there was a major uptake of the technology. Limestone is added from the top in alternate layers with fuel of wood, coal or coke. As the fuel burns, quicklime descends to the base where it is raked out of draw holes (which also feed oxygen to the fire) via arched access tunnels. More fuel and limestone are added in a continuous process. Large-scale works designed to operate commercially for an extended market were often associated with long distance water or rail transport.

Samuel Oldknow (1756 – 1828) was an early industrialist born in Anderton, Lancashire. In the 1780s his network of hand-loom weavers around Bolton and Stockport made him Britain’s most successful muslin manufacturer, and he also established a large bleach, print and dye works (which probably also made finished garments, an early example of vertical integration in the textile industry). He built Stockport’s first steam-powered mill in 1790. The declaration of war on the UK by France in 1793 severely affected his finances and he was forced to concentrate his activities around Marple and Mellor, where he had acquired an extensive estate between 1787 and 1792.

The Peak Forest Canal was approved in 1794 and linked several Derbyshire lime quarries with the Ashton Canal at Dukinfield, thereby accessing Lancashire’s coalfields and industrial heartland. Parts of the proposed canal crossed Oldknow’s land and he became the canal’s largest shareholder and one of its most active members. The canal design comprised two levels connected by a flight of locks at Marple, and Oldknow planned to build a limekiln at this site (the terminus of the southern upper level), from at least as early as 1795.

The first kiln (known as bay 6) was built during 1797, with three pots served by a central draw tunnel in a concave façade. It was operational very soon after commercial traffic began on the canal’s upper level, that year. It was served by a short canal arm from the basin and coal and limestone were barrowed directly from boats moored in the arm, to be loaded into the pot tops. Canal company permits suggest that the kilns received at least one, and sometimes two or three, loads of 25 tons of limestone every day.

Work continued on the lower level of the canal along with fundraising to build the locks. To connect the upper level with the planned terminus of the lower level at a wharf on the south side of the River Goyt, in 1798 the canal company built a two-kilometre horse-drawn wagonway. The canal was served by a similar system at the quarries at its southern end. The canal wagonway included a channel to transfer water from the upper to lower level, and (from 1800) a metalled path for the gangers who walked the horses along it. Part of its route crossed what is now the Marple Recreation Ground, raised on an earth bank.

The wagonway was designed by the company’s then engineer, Benjamin Outram, and passed the entrance to Oldknow’s lime works. Benjamin Outram (baptised 1764, died 1805) was a noted surveyor, civil engineer and industrialist from Alfreton, Derbyshire. He surveyed several canals and was an important figure in the early development of railways. His ‘Minutes to be Observed on the Construction of Rail-Ways’ (1801) was an early specification for their construction, and is believed to be based on his work for the Peak Forest Canal. The limeworks’ own wagonway is thought to have been an original feature of 1797, entering the kiln’s long draw tunnel so that the finished lime could be loaded directly into wagons. It was probably already intended to build the canal’s wagonway, and to integrate the two.

A bank of three further kiln pots was added to the north of the first kiln between 1798 and 1800 (possibly in two phases), behind a stone façade with four concave bays (bays 7 to 10) facing north-east, and three more to a north-west side return. Like the original kiln front, these bays had semi-circular arches above the draw tunnels, thought to be relieving arches. The southernmost of these (bay 7) did not serve a kiln pot but may have had a false draw tunnel, later hidden behind one of two stone-revetted structures built flanking the original kiln’s draw tunnel.

The lower level of the canal was carried across the Goyt in May 1800, and by October the canal company resolved to resume work on the locks and to double the track of the wagonway (probably repurposing the existing gangers’ path and laying a new one). The existing track had to run around the clock to cope with demand.

In 1799 and 1800, the canal company had offered incentives to prospective builders of limekilns alongside the canal. In September 1801 Oldknow obtained retrospective qualification for six kilns then under construction, so that if they were in full operation by 1 November 1801 he would be entitled to the premium equivalent to a fifth of their value. This further bank of six kiln pots was built to the south of the original kiln, bringing the total number of pots at the site to twelve. An east-facing retaining wall to the south of this bank comprised five more concave bays, and the northernmost of these (known as bay 1), along with the new bank’s four-bay north-east façade (bays 2 to 5), incorporated tall arches in the upper level, with Gothic tracery, so that the whole structure resembled an ancient castle. Most unusually, this kiln bank incorporated dwellings (which were lit by these Gothic windows) above the draw arches and tunnels.

The kilns were the centrepiece of a lime works of which John Farey wrote in his account of a visit between 1807 and 1809, ‘the structure and arrangements of these lime-works are the most complete that I have seen’. By 1808 deliveries exceptionally reached six 25-ton loads in a single day. It is likely that the other buildings (immediately outside the scheduled area) that formed part of the lime works were also built between 1797 and 1805. A building for loading lime onto carts for road transport is probably earliest (now known as Lime Kiln Farm and listed under National Heritage List for England (NHLE) entry 1259993); 32 Strines Road was a stable block, probably the ‘new stables’ constructed in late 1802 (NHLE 1242481), while the unlisted 20 Strines Road was originally a shed for loading lime onto canal barges, and probably dates from around 1804 when the locks were being completed, after which a canal arm bypassed the locks and entered the main line at Posset Bridge.

The canal wagonway’s second track opened in 1803 and the wagonway operated at least until the locks opened in 1805. It was eventually lifted in 1807, removing the sleeper stones but retaining the stone bedding layers. The route across the recreation ground was later used as a roadway connecting the turnpike (now Strines Road) with what is now Oldknow Road, heading towards Marple Bridge. By the 1840s this road had fallen out of use, and the land was used for grazing until it became a public open space in the early C20.

The two stone-revetted prominences that flanked bay 6’s draw tunnel (tunnel 2) post-date the last phase of kiln-building which finished in 1802, and are not on plans of 1818 and around 1821, first being marked on the tithe map of 1850. They were probably for storage or temporary stalling for wagonway horses, and the southern one later acted as a ramp to access the dwellings. A single-storey structure with a catslide roof, above the southern bank of kilns, is first shown on the plan of around 1821. This might have related to the dwellings below, or operated as a single-storey building at the bank-top level.

By 1860 the northern bank of kilns was redundant, when the mining and brick-making company J and M Tymm sank a coal shaft named the Peacock pit into the top of the kiln bank, accessing seams earlier mined further to the south by Oldknow. Lime burning continued at the southern kilns, however. By 1872 a small weigh-house had been added to the works wagonway east of the kiln bank, and colliery structures had been added on the bank top, probably including a winding-engine house, boiler house and chimney. These were all replaced or enlarged between 1872 and 1883, and a new building was also added across the site of the two south-easterly kiln pots. Some of these buildings might also have related to brick-making, and some appear to have been partly built with bricks from former kiln pots. Between 1883 and 1889, a large building with a chimney was built immediately to the west of the single-storey bank-top building. This probably also related to brick-making. By 1889 the clay to the east of the kiln bank was being dug to make bricks, the excavations reaching right to the wall of the kilns.

In 1896 the lime and brick works closed, and by 1907 the bank-top buildings had been demolished and the works wagonway removed. By 1935 a dance hall had been built at the northern end of the bank top, with its east wall resting on the kilns’ facade. This was bought by the Royal British Legion as a clubhouse. Filling of the clay pit had also begun by this date, and by 1969 the houses at 40 to 48 Strines Road had been built on the eastern part of this site (outside the scheduled area).

The kilns were scheduled as an ancient monument in 1964, by which time the southernmost two of the bays with Gothic windows (bays 1 and 2) had mostly collapsed, and bay 5 had lost its window openings. That year the Marple Antiquarian Society (now Marple Local History Society) launched a campaign to preserve the structure. Brian Stott (a former chair of the district council) bought the site of the kilns and land to their front, and donated this to the council.

In 1970 a portion of the north-eastern corner of the kiln wall collapsed, and the Royal British Legion Club had to be demolished and the current forces’ club building built. Between 1973 and 1974 the northern part of the kiln facade (bays 7 to 10 of the east wall, and the northern wall fronting Lime Kiln Lane) was demolished, and the kiln structures behind covered by a landscaped slope (which also partially conceals the front of bay 6). A new stone boundary wall was built, set back from the top of the kiln bank, partially carried on a steel beam across the kiln identified as pot 4b. The Gothic window tracery was also removed from bay 3, and the arched opening blocked. Bay 4’s opening was blocked behind the tracery, which has since been removed at an unknown date.

INVESTIGATION HISTORY

The primary survey of the kilns was made in 1972 by the industrial archaeologist Owen Ashmore, including the dwelling chambers above the tunnels. The survey included photographs and measured sketch drawings.

In 2013 the monument was added to the national Heritage At Risk register (HAR). A project named ‘Revealing Oldknow’s Legacy’ followed, which funded structural and archaeological survey and primary research as well as a Conservation Management Plan that included the limekilns.

In 2015 Dr Pete Arrowsmith published an updated desk-based assessment (DBA) of the limekilns site. This noted that the Gothic bays added in 1801 and 1802 are an unusual architectural embellishment for lime kilns in a national context, and no other kilns are known to have included workers’ dwellings within the kiln bank.

Survey carried out in 2014 by Matrix Archaeology confirmed that Arrowsmith’s site 8e (to the rear of bay 3) is likely to be a kiln pot. Site 8e stands in the location of the north-west corner of a triangular arrangement of six pots shown on the 1818 plan (assumed to be Oldknow’s six kilns of 1801). Sites 8a and 8b also align with the location of pots on the 1818 plan. However site 8c (in the location of a pot shown on the 1872 Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:2,500 map) appears to be outside the triangle of six pots shown in 1818. This might make it an additional kiln to the 12 known to have been built by 1802.

Salford Archaeology undertook several community archaeological excavations across the site between 2015 and 2022. Around 2022, grants enabled the removal of vegetation and repair of stonework, internal structural repairs and community archaeological excavations, as well as landscaping and on-site interpretation. A digital scan also enabled a pointcloud fly-through to be produced of the internal structure behind the kiln wall.

In 2023 the monument was removed from the HAR register.

Details

PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS: parts of a late-C18 and early-C19 lime works including a stone-fronted bank of brick limekilns built into rising ground and surviving as a partial stone facade with buried archaeological deposits and internal structures, and land at the foot of the kilns containing further buried structures and evidence of a horse-drawn wagonway serving the kilns. Also part of a related late-C18 canal wagonway (widened early in the C19), surviving as a curving raised earthwork.

DESCRIPTION: the site is adjacent to a basin to the east of the Peak Forest Canal, above Marple locks.

EXTERIOR: the kiln bank is built into the ground sloping down from the canal, and is aligned north-west to south-east. It is around 95m long, 25m wide, and around 4m high above current ground level at its southern end, around 7m high in the centre where the ground is lower and the stonework taller, and diminishing to around 2m above the landscaped ground at its northern end.

For the sake of clarity the numbers assigned to the bays and tunnels of the eastern retaining wall of the bank by Owen Ashmore and repeated in Dr Arrowsmith’s 2015 desk-based assessment are used here. Ashmore defined bay 1 as the southernmost concave bay that originally had a tall arch with two tiers of openings within it. The numbered bays extended north from bay 1, with bay 6 comprising the original single-bay kiln of 1797, and bay 10 the northernmost of the east wall. The retaining wall originally continued to the south of bay 1, in a similar form with up to six concave bays separated by straight sections of varying length, but with no other notable features. In this description, the sequence is continued southwards, with bay 0 as the first bay to the south of bay 1. The numbers assigned to individual site components in Dr Arrowsmith’s gazetteer are also used.

The principal standing remains comprise the stone facade of bays 2 to 6. The walling is of squared sandstone, in regular courses of varying height. The concave bays are around 5m wide, and the buttresses around 1.5m wide. The buttresses stand proud of the concave walling of the bays, by one stone’s depth, and for the most part a straight vertical joint separates them; a very small number of splayed stones span the joint to key the structures together. Both the bays and the buttresses batter slightly, the batter diminishing markedly around 1.5m from the current top of the stonework. The waling of the former bank-top structure is darker than the stone below it, and only survives to a course or two in height. Free lime from recent repairs is staining the courses below the uppermost bed joint.

The standing remains of bay 2 comprise its northern third. At its left are the jamb and springing of the former central double-height arch. At the right is a single-height arched doorway at ground level, with shaped voussoirs and imposts, and some tie-rod pattress plates. At the top left of the buttress to the north, part of an opening of the former bank-top structure survives, including a vertical jamb stone and a sill stone. The ground slopes down to the right so that the base of the buttress is around 1m lower than the lowest visible stone of the former arch jamb. This ground level then continues across bays 3 and 4. Around 2m above the ground in the centre of the buttress is a ‘missing’ stone (now blocked), a feature which is visible in photographs of around 1900 and appears to be designed, possibly relating to a flue.

Bay 3 has a central double-height arch, 4m tall, with a sill just below 2m above ground level. The arch is semi-circular, with regular voussoirs and wide imposts. Near the base each jamb has a vertical stone just less than 1m high. The top of these stones aligned with the ‘capitals’ of the lower former Gothic arcade within the opening – the capitals of the upper arcade aligned with the impost of the outer arch. The opening has modern brick infill behind, patched with render. Bay 3’s draw tunnel (Ashmore’s tunnel 4) offset to the left is now obscured below ground. In Ashmore’s photographs of 1972, these tunnels appear around 2m high, and it is considered likely that below-ground survival of the walling and tunnels remains good.

To the north, bay 4 is very similar to bay 3, continuing at the same maximum height across the bay, and with a near-identical arched opening. However, just above ground level the top of bay 4’s access tunnel arch (Ashmore’s tunnel number 3) is visible, slightly offset to the left. At the right, bay 4 also differs in that it continues into the buttress without a vertical joint. The bay is less concave at the right, reducing the angle at which the face approaches the buttress. The joint is instead formed by stones with shallow-angled faces, functioning as quoins.

Bay 5 has a higher ground level, approximately level with the sill of the upper arches in bays 3 and 4. This bay also angles away from the parallel faces of bays 3 and 4, its northern buttress being set back around 0.5m from its southern buttress. This bay has a former semi-circular opening of approximately the same width as those in bays 3 and 4 and rising to the same level. Its sill is absent, which formerly divided it from another opening below it, which is slightly wider, with the outer springing for the arches of a former Gothic arcade. This combined opening also has modern brick infill behind. At the right, bay 5 abuts the battered buttress of bay 6, the wide joint currently being open. it is considered likely that below 2m below current ground level, the southern projection flanking bay 6’s draw tunnel survives well.

Bay 6 stands around five courses of stonework taller than bay 5. It was originally around 9m wide, but its northern 3m are concealed by sharply rising ground which was landscaped in 1974. The masonry is random-coursed and of varying size. The left buttress batters in both planes up to just below the top of bay 5; above this are four courses of stonework similar to bay 5’s, with a vertical face. The concave face is recessed from the face of the buttress and resembles dry-stone walling, but the upper courses are mortared. At the right the ground slopes down from the bank top, and the masonry steps down irregularly to around 2m below the bank top level, where the rising ground at the front meets the falling ground from the bank top. The slopes are heavily overgrown and no detail of bay 6’s draw arch (tunnel 2) is visible. It is considered likely that the demolition and landscaping of bays 7 to 10 covered rather than destroyed the northern projection flanking bay 6’s draw tunnel, which may survive well several metres below the current ground level.

The southernmost standing remains at the site stand around 15m to the south of bay 2’s standing remains, beyond the unretained sloping bank where the southern part of bay 2, and bays 1 and 0 formerly stood. The walling, comprising the whole of bay ‘-1’ and the northern half of bay ‘-2’, plus the flat-faced buttress between them, is approximately 8m long and around 4m high, above an overgrown steep 6m bank. The masonry is similar to that of bays 2 to 5 described above. A blocked oval opening sketched by Ashmore in the centre of bay -1 remains visible, now just above the banked ground. At the top of the northern end of the stonework is the rectangular mouth of a flue-like structure emanating from the kiln bank.

INTERIOR: the interior of the kiln bank was not inspected for this assessment (2026) and this description is based on earlier accounts and recent survey.

Ashmore’s tunnels 2, 3 and 4 comprise the stone-lined draw tunnels to two of the three clusters of kiln pots. Tunnel 2 (in bay 6, and serving the three pots of site 5) is approximately 12m long, 3.5m wide and 2.75m high and extends perpendicular to the line of the kiln bank wall. Around 2m from the entrance it has a circular shaft in its arched roof, around 1.3m wide. Around 6.75m from the entrance, in both side walls are kiln openings around 2.25m wide. Around 1.5m beyond these, each side wall also has a blocked arched opening around 1.5m wide. 1m beyond these, the tunnel ends at an arched kiln opening also around 2.25m wide, with four square iron draw-holes set in a brick wall, with two smaller square openings above them.

Tunnel 3 (in bay 4, and serving the six-pot cluster of site 8), is around 37m long and extends roughly south, at an angle of around 45 degrees to the kiln-bank wall. It is narrower than tunnel 2, at around 2.5m wide, but of similar height. As well as numerous arched openings in its side walls, it is linked to tunnel 4 by an arched tunnel nearly 3.5m wide and 3m long. Tunnel 4 (opening in bay 3) is around 34m long, roughly parallel to tunnel 3, and with similar arched openings in its side walls. It also has a circular shaft in its roof, which is thought to lead to the oval opening in the face of bay -1 of the kiln bank wall. The survival of the tunnels is considered likely to be good, retaining at least the iron draw eyes in tunnel 2 photographed by Ashmore, and probably most of its length.

Directly behind each of bays 3, 4 and 5, and accessible via an (internally-blocked) passage from the opening in the remains of bay 2, are three former dwellings, situated above the level of the draw tunnels, with stone walls (with some later brick patching and repair, and structural steel). These rooms originally had two levels and put-logs in the walls indicate a former timber floor. They have arched roofs around 5m high (with some dropped and missing keystones), and both roofs and walls show evidence of former plaster. The rear wall of the room in bay 5 (room 1) has an opening with evidence of additional rooms to the rear, and a stepped tunnel which rises to the bank-top level. Room 3 (behind bay 3) also has a sloping passage aligned roughly south, in its rear wall, probably accessing the bank-top at site 8.

The north return of the kiln bank, parallel with Lime Kiln Lane, comprises an overgrown slope around 10m wide and 3m high, falling to the north. At the top of the slope is a random-coursed wall around 1.5m high of squared stonework (probably salvaged from the kiln wall), with vertical coping stones.

To the east of the canal the bank-top is partly surfaced for the forces’ club car park, but to the east of that is grassed and partly overgrown. Excavation and geophysical survey have confirmed good survival of the remains around 5cm beneath the surface, including at least six kiln pots of around 1800 (sites 4a, 4b, 5a-5c and 8e)). These kilns pots all survive (truncated to around 4m in diameter), as in-situ masonry and brickwork which is separated by friable sandstone rubble packing. The rest of site 8 is partially covered by modern surfaces and temporary buildings, or self-seeded trees which are likely to be disturbing the archaeology. It has not been surveyed or excavated, but survival below ground is considered likely to include at least parts of the kiln pots and draw tunnels. Other features surviving as in-situ masonry include the rounded north-eastern terminus of the northern of the two late-C18 canal arms (site 6), a brick floor within the 1880s probable former brickworks building (site 19), and the 1860 Peacock Pit coal-mine shaft (site 9). This shaft is known to be around 114ft deep and no detail is known of how it was capped; only the upper two courses of stonework have been excavated.

To the rear of bay 5 of the facade, geophysical survey has confirmed the below-ground survival of two circular features approximately 3m wide, interpreted as a brickworks chimney and an access tunnel to the internal dwellings from the former bank-top structure.

North-east of the kiln bank, the late-C18 works wagonway partly survives below the surface as compacted stone surfaces with at least five in-situ stone sleepers with an ‘Outram’ gauge of 4ft 2in. Either side of the central line of the former works wagonway, a weigh house dating to before 1872 (site 14) and one post-dating 1883 partially survive as below-ground arrangements of stone and brick walls, and some possible internal floor surfaces.

In the north-west corner of the recreation ground the former canal wagonway of between 1798 and 1803 (site 30b) survives as a slightly-curving linear bank truncated to around 75m long, which is 14m wide and 1m high, with a steep east side, top surface around 6m wide and a shallower more gradual slope along its western edge. The track-bed survives below the surface as compacted surfaces, and remains of a stone wall and brick drainage channel have also been excavated. Mature trees standing on this bank are likely to have caused some disturbance to the surviving archaeology.

EXTENT OF SCHEDULING: the first protected area is focused on the known surviving remains of the bank of lime kilns and the former works wagonway. A triangular area of the bank top to the east of the car park, which geophysical survey and archaeological excavation suggest has little archaeological potential, is excluded from the scheduling. However, further remains may survive outside the scheduled area.

The scheduled area is drawn to modern property boundaries to the north and east, and follows but does not include these boundaries. The southern boundary runs dues east from the north corner of the social and forces club building. The eastern boundary then runs north-west, following the boundary with 48 Strines Road for a distance of 16m. From the point where number 48’s boundary returns eastward, the eastern boundary of the area of assessment continues northwards on its same line for a further 53m. It then turns north-east, to follow the line of the north-western boundary of number 32 Strines Road. The boundary then returns north-westwards, following the boundary with Strines Road. The boundary then returns south-westwards to follow the boundary with number 30 Strines Road, until it meets Lime Kiln Lane. The boundary then follows the southern edge of Lime Kiln lane until this meets the access road to the social and forces club. Here the boundary turns east and follows but does not include the northern edge of the access road, and then turns north-east to follow the southern edge of the stone wall marking the property boundary. At the point where the line of this wall changes to run due east, the western boundary of the area diverts to the south-east, on a direct line towards the north corner of the club building, for 35.5m. It then turns due east for 18m, before returning due south for 20.5m, and then turning south-east on a direct line towards the north corner of the club building until it meets the building, a distance of approximately 11.5m.

The second protected area is focused on the known surviving remains of the canal wagonway in Marple Recreation Ground. This comprises the length of raised bank south of the modern drinking fountain and toilets. Further remains may survive outside the scheduled area. The boundary follows the line of the edges of the raised bank, with a 1m buffer to either side and at the northern end, where the truncated end of the bank is aligned south-west to north-east. The southern edge of the scheduled area follows, but does not include, the interior face of the boundary wall to the recreation ground.

EXCLUSIONS: all modern walls, fences and surfaces, as well as modern features such as interpretation panels, seating and litter bins on the bank top, are excluded from the scheduling; however the ground beneath all of these features is included. Modern services (gas, water, and drainage pipes, as well as conduits for electricity and telecommunication cabling and inspection/access chambers) are also excluded from the scheduling, although the ground through which they pass remains included. Fence and wall lines used to define the extent of the scheduling all lie immediately outside the scheduled area.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

GM 16

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Books and journals
Ashmore, O, Historic Industries of Marple and Mellor, (1977), 67-78
Hartwell, C, Hyde, M, Hubbard, E, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Cheshire, (2011), 475

Websites
Pointcloud flythrough of a 2022 3d laser scan by Salford Archaeology, accessed 16/05/2025 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81CeitBwtpg
Information on the history of protection and investigations, accessed 16/05/2025 from https://www.marple.website/community-projects/lime-kilns-preservation.html

Other
Arrowsmith, P, 'Revealing Oldknow's Legacy: The Lime Kilns, Marple, an archaeological desk-based assessment', volumes 1 and 2 (October 2015)
Coutts, A, 'Oldknow’s Lime Kilns, community archaeological excavation', Salford Archaeology report SA/2022/21 (February 2023)
Matrix Archaeology, 'Marple Lime Kilns, Archaeological Survey', report 2014-07 (June 2014)
Adcock, J, 'Lime Kilns Off Strines Road, Geophysical Survey', GSB Prospection Ltd report G1412 (May 2014)
Cattell, S, 'Oldknows Lime Kilns, community archaeological excavation', Salford Archaeology report SA/2017/18 (November 2017)
Cattell, S, 'Peak Forest Tramway, Marple, archaeological excavation', Salford Archaeology report SA/2016/55 (November 2016)
AHP (Architectural History Practice), 'Revealing Samuel Oldknow's Legacy: a Conservation Management Plan' (May 2013)
Howe, A, 'Oldknow, Samuel (1756–1828), cotton manufacturer' (2008). Online entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, retrieved 04 April 2025.
Riden, P, 'Outram, Benjamin (bap. 1764, d. 1805), civil engineer and ironmaster' (2004), online entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, retrieved 16 April 2025

End of official list entry

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