Grane Mill Engine, Boiler restoration with other engines on site.
"The Steam power plant at Grane Mill is owned by the Heritage Trust for the North West on whose behalf the Grane Mill Preservation Group volunteers and associates are working to conserve and repair this unique and important heritage asset to give it the long term future it deserves."
The Weaving Shed
The following photos are of Queen St Mill, Harle Syke, Burnley, which is a nationally designated textile museum owned by Lancashire County Council. As the last surviving working steam driven weaving mill it illustrates those machines and processes that are no longer present at Grane Mill.
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This page explains how the weaving shed operated and how the power was transferred from the engine to the looms.
This is the weaving shed at Queen St Mill it now contains 308 Lancashire looms but originally held over a 1000 with the parts of the shed at each side now used for other purposes. It was of similar size and layout to Grane in terms of the shafting layout and loom orientation, though at Grane the shafting was enclosed in its own alley.
The above drawing is of the weaving shed at Grane before the 1912 extension. The gear alley containing the main drive shaft can be seen to be running along the top of the shed with the loom shafting running at right angles being represented by the solid lines on the drawing next to the dotted ones representing the beams for the roof.
Click on the picture to view the shed in full context with the rest of the mill.
This shows the main shaft bevel gearing transmitting power from the engine to the line shafts and subsequently to the looms at Queen St. Mill. Here the main shaft running away into the distance is also the engine flywheel shaft so is directly coupled, whereas at Grane this shaft is coupled to a faster running second motion pulley which takes its power from the engine flywheel via rope drive.
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At Queen St the main shaft and gears are on view in the weaving shed and are noisy and dirty, dripping oil onto the floor. At Grane they are segregated within the gearing alley which runs between the preparation area, Warehouse and Weaving shed to try to reduce problems of vibration, noise, oily dirt and slip hazards.