Smedley Dip and Hendham Vale - background
The 1893 ordnance survey map identifies the "Little Green Dye and Chemical Works, Irkdale Iron Works, Irkdale Printing Works, and the Wire Works". These industries still remained in the 1908 ordnance survey map. There was also a substantial amount of terraced housing in the area, which housed the factory workers. During the industrial period the area had very little greenery. Many of the factories imported goods from foreign countries which in turn carried foreign objects such as rouge seeds; these seeds, once the industrial works had reduced or ceased, took root and established themselves. This is nature re-asserting itself.
This whole area was one of our first major landscaping projects in the 1970's; taking an industrial waste land and transforming it into a riverside green corridor for the benefit of the local community.