Bourne Mills, Brimscombe

It has been a drive-you-mad type of grey day, very overcast dulling the light. I haven't really got out of second gear. I took Helena, slowly, up the Golden Valley to her regular job on tuesday afternoons, and decided to then drive a mile further upstream to have a look at Bourne Mills.

I know nothing of its history yet so decided to just explore with my camera. I did notice that looking for a photo removes me from the different ways of seeing and exploring just for oneself.

The bright blue doors kept attracting me as I looked at the way the main mill-wheel building was now being used. The bottom two floors are occupied by Noah's Ark cycle shop. The other two floors have signs of some occupation, but the condition of the fabric gets progressively worse the higher you go. In the building opposite is a business selling snowboards. Round the back a few small light industrial premises are dotted about a few outbuildings.

Finally, I went across the main Stroud to Cirencester road, only about two miles from our house, and found a small and rather bedraggled footpath going straight up the hillside. I couldn't go any further backwards, before it twisted away up the hillside.

The road is just one of the occupants of this narrow space. Just to the left of the sign for Noah's Ark, which is on the opposite verge, a small arched bridge lead down over a ruined canal lock, and on to these main mill buildings built below the now filled-in mill pond. The railway is on one of many viaducts that criss-cross the valley as the railway climbs up and up to the famous Sapperton Bank and tunnel.

The archway behind the red car straddles the River Frome, which is the rightful owner of this valley, as it meanders from side to side flowing down from left to right. I was rather surprised when the train hoved into view, on its way from Swindon to Cheltenham. This whole railway was built by Brunel in the 1840s, and I love it when steam train excursions come down this aptly named Golden Valley, which is a famously beautiful journey, as well as a severe test for the steam engine when going up Sapperton Bank. Beyond the river, the hillside climbs steeply up to the hamlet of Burleigh, just below Minchinhampton Common. The total width of the bottom of the valley here is probably only about fifty yards, and the road, canal. and railway follow the river towards Chalford and beyond for about six miles. There is only about three feet between the bridge and the mill building for four floors, which shows how little space is available in this country scene.

I love all of the many mill buildings remaining in the valley, each of them built for a unique purpose in a specific spot to harness the water power. There have been mills here since the 13th century, and many of them still have successful businesses working in them. But sadly the surrounding infra-structure is often on its last legs. I wonder what impact and opportunities the re-building of the Thames and Severn canal might provide for all the canal-side structures and buildings. At present, the canal is only being rebuilt as far east as Brimscombe Port, only a quarter of a mile downstream from here. If another tranche of money can be found, and surprisingly it is not impossible, then the canal might re-open all the way from River Severn to the River Thames at Lechlade, probably a distance of nearly thirty miles.

NB
I decided to warm the image slightly, as it seemed unusually and unnaturally grey, which was not the objective.