Oldham Mills
Outside The Ring Road
a photographic exhibition at Gallery Oldham
The brief for this project was “Community Cohesion” and as the exhibition was to be held at Gallery Oldham, we needed to include Oldham in our interpretation of the brief. Each of the photographers involved interpreted that brief in a completely different way and the resulting exhibition was the more interesting because of it. The exhibition was held at the gallery between November and December 2004.
I spent the summer of 2004 working on this project, coming up with a theme and then taking hundreds of photographs. Initially I spent some time in Oldham and the surrounding areas in order to get a feel for the place and the people who lived there. My eventual theme was based on the mills of Oldham and their effect on the people who worked in them and lived near them. Many small communities originally developed around the mills giving the people who and worked there a feeling of identity and pride in ‘their mill’ and as the mills have fallen into disuse and many have become derelict, that has had an effect on the surrounding communities. I tried to express this through my photography.
Prints available
I exhibited four images in this event as shown below. Prints are available in various sizes supplied unmounted or mounted ready for framing.
Do you live or work in Oldham, have offices or have family ties there? If you would like to purchase one of these Oldham Mill images as a framed and/or mounted Limited Edition print please use the Contact form and let me know which one you would like and at what size. I also have a number of images of other mills in and around Oldham, Failsworth, Saddleworth, Stockport etc so please contact me for details.
Durban Mill
Lees Brook Mill
Manor Mill
Hartford Mill
Images of many other mills in Oldham, Failsworth, Saddleworth, Chadderton, Stockport and surrounding areas are also available on request.
Images are © Denise Swanson 2004
Artists Statement:
After the Industrial Revolution, towns such as Oldham thrived on the output from the mills which sprung up almost everywhere, Small communities evolved around each of these monolithic structures which so dominated the lives of all those who worked in them and lived near them. Towering high, overshadowing all who lived in the vicinity, belching thick grey smoke which blackened the distinctive red bricks, the chimneys became landmarks which could be seen for miles. Each had its name proudly displayed which gave each community an identity and a certain pride in ‘their mill’.
The more successful the mill, the more likely the little village, or area where it stood, was to become a township in its own right, or part of a larger one, as the community developed. There was a camaraderie amongst those who lived and worked there.
With the decline of the cotton industry in the 1960s, many of those old mills have since been demolished. Those which remain still stand proudly erect overlooking a more modern skyline, and although no longer choking the atmosphere and blackening its heart it is clear just how big a part these monstrous structures played in the forming of small communities and in the lives of their inhabitants.
Today, the mills that remain still dominate the areas in which they stand, amongst the rows and rows of blackened old terraced mill workers homes. Now new housing estates and modern terraces snuggle up against the mills and embrace them.
