There is a long history of water powered activity in New Mills. At the turn of the last century, what is now the Torrs Riverside Park was a bustling centre of industrial activity. Tenements lined the crags on the town side, with houses stacked one above another, and cotton mills along the bottom of the valley hugged the river, taking advantage of the water flow from the Sett and Goyt rivers to power their looms. The houses have all gone, with the last being demolished in the 1960s, and the ruins of the old mills line the gorge. The only mill still standing, Torr Vale Mill, now shelters a mixture of industrial, commercial and hospitality businesses but as you walk along the Millennium Bridge if you look across to the mill you can still see the original water inlet, overflow and outlet on either side of the weir. It therefore made sense to build the country’s first community funded and operated hydropower scheme down in the Torrs on the site of the old Torr Mill, which burned down in 1912.
The scheme is located on the site of Torr Mill, a textile mill built in 1790 which was destroyed in a fire in 1912. The turbine actually sits in location of the original mill pit, where the water wheel would have been sited. Some of the original stones from the mill pit now line the surroundings of the turbine. The scheme has been built using local stone and is designed to blend into its post-industrial location. Careful landscaping and the provision of two picnic tables have enhanced the amenity of the site.
Timeline
- January 2007 – Public information weekend
- June 2007 – Full planning permission granted
- September 2007 – Torrs Hydro New Mills formed
- Novermber 2007 – Torrs Hydro Prospectus launched
- January 2008 – One Year On exhibition
- January 2008 – Share Offer closed
- March 2008 – Construction begins
- June 2008 – The screw is delivered: The Big Lift
- August 2008 – Commissioning started
- September 2008 – Handover of scheme to Torrs Hydro New Mills Limited
- November 2008 – Inaugural Annual General Meeting
- January 2009 – 100,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- March 2009 – Second share offer closed
- May 2009 – Low flow noise issue arises
- July 2009 – Government case study for UK Renewable Energy Strategy 2009
- November 2009 – Second Annual General Meeting
- December 2009 – 200,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- 2010 – First six months “the second driest recorded in the UK in 96 years, with river flows in some areas at their lowest levels in 50 years” source: The Guardian 14th July 2010
- September 2010 – 300,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- October 2010 – Energy & Climate Change Minister Greg Barker MP visited Torrs Hydro
- February 2011 – the Big Flood
- February 2011 – Third Annual General Meeting
- November 2011 – 400,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- February 2012 – Fourth Annual General Meeting
- February 2012 – 500,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- April-July 2012 – the ‘Monsoon Summer’. Floods around the country but Archie loves the persist heavy rain, generating almost 110,000 kWh
- July 2012 – 600,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- October 2012-March 2013 -a very dry winter, with only 73,000 kWh generated
- February 2013 – 700,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- March 2013 – Fifth Annual General Meeting
- June 2013 – Founding Director Richard Body is awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the hydroelectric industry
- January 2014 – 800,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- March 2014 – Sixth Annual General Meeting
- March 2014 – Founding Director Maggie Cole is named a New Mills Unsung Hero for her work on local alternative energy projects, including THNM
- September 2014 – Third share offer closes
- December 2014 – 900,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- 8 April 2015 06:07am – 1,000,000 kWh power generation milestone reached
- April 2015 – Seventh Annual General Meeting
- June 2015 – Archie is featured in a BBC Breakfast report about cooperatives, with director Maggie Cole interviewed.
- April 2016 – Eighth Annual General Meeting
- April 2017 – Ninth Annual General Meeting
- 15th September 2017 – 1,100,000 kWh generated
- 13th March 2018 – 1,200,000 kWh generated
- April 2018 – Tenth Annual General Meeting
- April 2019 – Eleventh Annual General Meeting
- 26th January 2020 – 1,300,000 kWh generated
- 4th July 2020 – Twelfth Annual General Meeting (virtual Zoom meeting due to the pandemic)
- 15 November 2020 – 1,400,000 kWh generated
- Mid-November 2020 – Prospectus for the fourth share offer is launched
- December 2020 – To celebrate Archie becoming a teenager, he is being brought up to date by installing variable speed operation and a new control system