New Mills Heritage Centre

The Torrs offers a peaceful retreat where the natural world blends with evidence of the early industrial revolution, of the Victorian expansion of the town, and of modern ingenuity.   

New Mills Heritage Centre is the home of a small but perfectly-formed museum that visitors say is “just right” for finding out more about the spectacular natural features and fascinating

history of the town.

Display boards tell “The New Mills Story” from the creation of the Torrs at the end of the last glacial period, through ‘Domesday’, the Royal Forest of Peak, the “Newmylne” from which the town took its name, the scattered dwellings of farmers and traders, to the growth of a town that formed a ‘stronghold’ of Methodism. 

The story continues as the introduction of water power, mechanisation and the factory system changed the face of New Mills forever... and the town becomes an important centre for cotton spinning, bleaching, dyeing and calico printing.  Find out more about the mills and the people who had to work in them.  Take a ‘guided tour’ of the town in 1884 with the commentary accompanying our extraordinary model.  Peer into the engraver’s studio and listen to his tale.  Crawl into the simulated coal mine to see what conditions are like underground.

A viewpoint just outside the Centre looks out over the Torrs gorge to Torr Vale Mill - now sadly derelict despite previously holding the record for the longest continuous textile production in the country - and the latest of the town’s many significant bridges: The Millennium Walkway, built against the equally impressive Victorian railway retaining wall.

Completed just before Christmas 1999, the Walkway was “designed with the intention it be noticed... a triumph of engineering and design - a slender, modern and beautiful structure fitting into an historic landscape”.  The Walkway has won various awards and was one of the projects featured on the set of stamps produced by the Post Office to mark the Millennium.

The Heritage Centre’s position makes it an ideal starting or stopping off point on the many trails that criss-cross the area. 

“Explore New Mills - Heritage Trail” is a free publication from the Centre which takes in the Millennium Walkway, the Torrs and the architectural heritage of the town itself.

For those wishing to spend longer in the Torrs Riverside Park - some two miles of the Goyt

valley reclaimed from former uses with extensive tree planting, pond creation and wildlife management schemes - the Centre also has free leaflets on “The Torrs Riverside Park”, “The Torrs Millennium Walkway”, “Goytside Meadows” and “Sett Valley Trail”.

Goytside Meadows is a 25 acre Local Nature Reserve, lying between the river and the Peak Forest Canal, managed as traditional flower-rich pasture and meadow land.  The Sett Valley Trail is a 2.5 mile traffic free route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders along the former New Mills to Hayfield railway line.

The Centre also sells maps and walking guides that reflect the town’s position on or close to longer tails (The Midshires (Goyt) Way), a 225 mile route from the Transpennine Trail to the Ridgeway runs through the Torrs) and as a gateway to the Peak District. 

April 2007 is the 75th anniversary of the famous Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout and the event will be marked in various ways including the unveiling of a new way-marked trail, information on which will be available from the Centre.  The Centre will also have a special display on the “Trespass” as part of its programme of changing temporary exhibitions.

Based in a converted stone building tucked behind the bus station, the Centre can be reached by road (it is sign-posted from the A6 and from local roads from Marple, Hayfield and Chinley) and by public transport.  Regular bus services operate within the town and from Hayfield, Glossop, Buxton, Stockport and Macclesfield.  The town has two railway stations: Central (Manchester - Sheffield line) is about 200 yards from the Centre, Newtown (Manchester - Buxton line) is about twenty minutes walk away.  Car parking is available in the town and is free for the first two hours.

Admission is free and the Centre is open at weekends and on bank holidays (except Christmas Day) from 10.30am to 4.30pm (4.00pm in winter) and weekdays (except Monday) from 11.00am to 4.00pm.