Tentering Tower, Stubbins, Lancs 06/08

Finally got up the hill to see the Stubbins Tentering Tower

This listed building called a Tentering or Drying Tower used to contain wooden frames on which cloth was stretched in order that it would remain in shape while drying.
The material was held on the frame using "Tenter Hooks".




The mill lower down the hill in Stubbins, to which this tower belonged to, was built in 1877 by the local textile manufacturing family the Porritts.
In those days the newly made cloth was brought up the hill from the mills in the valley below to dry with the help of the wind passing through the tower.

Lancashire Council is in the process of appointing an architect to design the interior and detail the renovation works required so the tower can be restored and then opened for public use.

in the meantime plans have been drawn by the trust to fit gates and railings to openings to prevent vandalism or trespassers.


The pics...

Oh, really nice building! Enjoyed your photos and the history, Chewy. There used to be a thriving textile dyeing industry in Exeter during the same era, which used the same tentering techniques. Interesting stuff!

Thanks Foxy

there was a good lot of textile places up this way, but all the empty ones are being turned into posh apartments, or knocked down.

glad in a way that this place might be restored, so we can see how it was used...

took me a good while to figure out how to get to it.
you can see it easy enough on the hill, but just finding the right way up was the problem.

hope if they do restore it then proper paths/roads/signs are made.
god knows how you'll get a wheelchair or pram up there if they do

A groovy looking building indeed

Like the history behind the tower.

Good work Chews!

Lb:jimlad:

Thanks Lightbuoy

as a kid i always wanted to live in it.
doubt that'll ever happen now, or maybe....

*looks up squatters rights*

Damn Geocities is broked, that's why the pics aren't showing folks...
i'll photobucketize them