c1790: Cotton Mill built
Scorton was one of the earliest places to have a cotton factory,
built sometime in the late 18th century. The mill was powered
by an underground waterwheel supplied by a canal feeder from the river
Wyre and later in its life had a steam engine and gas.
The mill was not an initial success. In the early 19th century it was
taken over by Webster Fishwick of Burnley and not long after passed to his
son George. Later, about 1854, Peter Ormrod became owner and the mill
supplied his Bolton spinners with yarn.
The cotton mill closed in about 1920 and after that was used as a joiner's
shop and later a clog factory. In its heyday as a cotton factory, the main
building was three storeys high. In the 1950s and 1960s, the mill was used
by Grimshaw & Culshaw as a dairy. The site has been derelict for many years
and the part that still survives represents only a small portion of the
original mill.