Pond pictures
A full length view of the pond from the bank near Dobson’s Brook. Photo taken June 2011.
The public road is on the left side. Kirk Mill is at the far end. Only part of the roof of the mill building can be seen, indicating how the mill dam is high, enabling water to fall down to drive the water wheel.
The 1912 OS map 25 inch to the mile showed the area of the pond as 0.998 acres.
Another view in 2011 across the mill pond towards Austin House (also known as Dam Side in the past)
Almost the same view is shown in this painting of Austin House about 1840 by John Weld of Leagram Hall (1813-1888). The water in the mill dam was used for powering cotton spinning machines at Kirk Mill at that date. The picture is labelled “Atkinsons”, the name of the tenants there.
John Weld was a talented artist and made pen and ink wash paintings of every farmhouse and cottage on the Weld estate in Leagram and Little Bowland. (The collection is held at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston)
About 1793, the second cotton spinning company at Kirk Mill had enlarged the pond, as extra water was needed to work more machinery. Fields and an orchard in front of Austin House land were submerged. (Lancashire archives, Stonyhurst estate rentals, DDSt)
