Whitehall Paper Mill to Chapel Milton Wharf

High Peak

Whitehall Paper Mill
First opening as a paper mill, the premises subsequently became a dye works after which it was enlarged many times. It had its own tramway branch and sidings that were used for the delivery of coal.

Forge Mill Bleach Works
First opening as an iron-bar slitting mill, the premises were briefly converted for the manufacture of paper before being used as a bleaching works. The bleached cloth was transported by tramway to Bugsworth Basin and from there by canal to another mill near Marple for further processing.

Chapel Milton Wharf
Under the terms of the original Act of Parliament the Peak Forest Canal was to have terminated at Chapel Milton. In the event the canal was only built as far as Bugsworth and the Peak Forest Tramway was extended from Chapel Milton to Bugsworth.

This wharf was mostly used for the transhipment of lime destined for Hayfield, 2½ miles to the north, but it was also used for general goods traffic to and from the surrounding area. A lime kiln was built in Chapel Milton during the 1830s, so it is likely that the tramway was used to transport coal to it as well as limestone from the quarries around Dove Holes. In March 1860 the kiln was purchased by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company (MS&LR Co) from the owners, John and Thomas Brocklehurst, for £50. By the late 1880s it had become disused.

When Stockport Corporation started to build their Kinder Reservoir, 2 miles north east of Hayfield, the wharf was extensively used while a temporary railway was being built to supply materials for reservoir construction work. It is known that lime and some limestone, brought in by tramway, were loaded into carts here to be hauled to the construction site. When the temporary railway was completed, materials were supplied directly by rail under a joint agreement between the Great Central Railway Co (successor to the MS&LR Co) and the Midland Railway Co. The reservoir opened in 1911 after more than nine years work.