2-798-500 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ruins of the Lower-House Mill, near Oldham, 1844. Scene of an industrial accident at Oldham in Yorkshire, a centre of textile manufacture: '...the falling of a newly erected mill, the property of Messrs. Radcliffe, and Co...Twenty persons were killed by this unfortunate occurrence, 12 males, and 8 females. From the...evidence, though the facts are somewhat scattered, may be gleaned what, in all probability, is the true cause of the fall of the mill...water, it is supposed, by its percolation through the brickwork of the arch, had considerably loosened the mortar, and thus caused the arch to give way...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol V.