FOSTER MILL Dam Culvert

Posted by Carlton Draft
Thursday, October 26, 2006

I read today that an underground culvert had been discovered on the site on Victoria Road.

I remember vividly when the old mill was torn down and they started excavating for the new houses that was to be built that they uncovered quite a large hole/channel under what was then the mill.

This channel actually ends up running into the river Hebden just before the weir (up stream) where the old Utley and Ingham used to be (probably wont mean much to the out-of-town-ers sorry) you can still find it there, as a kid it was a place no one ventured as it was toooooo dark.

There also used to be another channel/room under the road where the old chimney stood (I think is was a boiler room) I remember as a kid there uses to be a ramp that went down under the road that was dark and damp (and quite scary) but if you was brave enough and went all the way thorough it came out in to a workshop I think, on the other side of the road old Hebdenites will remember it

If some more pictures were posted of the location of the culvert I may be able to help with the identification of it.

(We hope to have a fully illustrated news item about this within a few days - webmaster)

Posted by Carlton Draft
Thursday, October 26, 2006

By looking at the photo's provided I'm 100% sure that this culvert is the same one that I mentioned in the above post. It runs all the way from the houses built on Spring Grove to the out let just before the weir.

Before the houses were built, the developers filled in the culvert with hard fill, I remember this very well as they excavated out a huge of which they filled in.

I often thought why they only just did that small section knowing that there was still best part of a kilometer more of it.

If anyone wants to prove my theory get yourself some wellies and a torch and walk up the inlet (god knows what you would find though) it will bring you out at the discovered hole..

From Milford Stocks
Sunday, 12 November 2006

The culvert once ran from the corner of the old dam behind the houses on Spring Grove, the first one's at the Hebden Bridge end, then under the old Foster Mill (weaving Shed), under the road, then under the old weaving shed/Redmans sewing room (Foster Mill), then under the road again then under Uttley and Inghan's (Egg packers in later Years, before exiting into the river as described.

The origin and purpose of this culvert was to channel water from the Foster Mill dam to a waterwheel in the bowel's of the old Foster Mill to provide power before the days of steam etc; people who worked for Redmans or its Parent company "The English Fustian Manufacturing Company" certainly knew about it!!!

I have often wondered when this old Mill Culvert would crop up. Does no one ever read plans???

From Jim Brierley
Friday, 24 November 2006

Back in the late 1980s, when the site was being cleared, we saw a digger which had fallen into the culvert as the roof collapsed. This was subsequently filled-in, but as I remember it, the hole wasn't where the new collapse has happened, it was more towards the 'chimney' end, and at the far side of the site from Spring Grove.
This raises some more interesting questions: were the developers of Spring Grove aware of the existence of the culvert, which properties it (presumably still) runs under, and what effect does all this have on the value of affected properties?

On the subject of 'buried treaure', does anyone know what happened to the asbestos-filled cellar found during the demolition of the mill which stood where Waterside Fold is now? I remember watching the erection of a containment area complete with guys in white suits and respirators beavering away for a week or two...(We formerly lived on Unity Street, with a great view over town).