| Title | Larkfield Dam |
| Date | 1825 |
| Location | Rawdon |
| Photo ID | JH007 |
| Comment | See below … |
View of Larkfield Dam, seen from Rawdon Billing.
This photograph was originally taken on a 35mm slide and has been digitally transferred for us by John Hobson.
Editor’s Note: The first white house at the side of Larkfield Dam was built mid 1960s. It was bought by my Auntie after the passing of her husband and she lived there a number of years with daughter Margaret and son John. Jack Brayshaw. April 2021.
Larkfield Dam supplied water to Larkfield Mill and subsequently to W B Cartwright and Storey Evans when they took over the mill. The Dam also fed Billing Dam via an overflow stream. Billing Dam in turn supplied water to Low Mill, on the Leeds Road, which was occupied by numerous firms over the years.
To view all premises served by this water supply, please – Click Here.
T271 – Larkfield Dam, Undated.
Larkfield Dam – Undated
View of Larkfield Dam looking from Billing Wood.
T311 – Larkfield Dam, Undated.
Larkfield Dam – Undated
A view of the dam, on the left the land begins to rise to the summit of Billing Wood.
Editor’s Note: It all looks quite idyllic in the image, but during the 1950s it became full of broken glass bottles and other debris, thrown in by children, me included! So nice to see it now in this pleasant view. Jack Brayshaw. April 2021.
X491 – Larkfield Dam, Undated.
Larkfield Dam – Undated
The dam was utilised by Rawdon Yachting Club for model boats. Duck boards all around the sides of the dam for the model yachting enthusiasts.
In the background can be seen Benton Park School and to the right Green Lane Mill.
Photographer Dennis Court.
Editor’s Note: The white house to the right of the image was a police house on Markham Avenue during the 50s & 60s.
Previous Comments:
Graham Branston
Larkfield Dam is not fed by a stream or beck. The water must come from underground springs and it seems likely that there is an underground aquifer beneath the Billing. The dam was essential for various processes in cloth making when the Thompson family located a mill beside it in the early 19th century. The Thompsons would be curious if they returned today to see model boats on it!
Having examined some of my old maps & plans of Rawdon, an 1821 plan of part of the Emmott family estate shows that the location of the dam was then land. A plan of 1825 taken from Larkfield Mill deeds shows the dam and mill complex. So, the dam must have been created soon after 1821 probably from existing surface water standing in a field augmented by deepening the land and retaining spring water possibly with a bed of clay. Water was needed for steam engines which by then were replacing water wheels to power mills, also for various processes in woollen cloth making such as fulling, washing the cloth and dye making. There are many springs still evident around Rawdon Billing. I have also seen around Town Street, former wells including one in the house once occupied by the Thompson family who created the mill.
12 August 2018.
Christopher Davis
The Rev Marsden who lived in Paramatta, suburb of Sydney Australia, sent the first Merino wool to the UK which was processed at the Larkfield Mills, Rawdon, by the mill owners, the Thompson Family.
09 April 2020.
Gill C
In response to Hannah1 – I believe it was Mr Rennie and his brother built the pair of semi-detached houses in the photos c1911/12.
We were told that Mr Rennie owned the piece of land opposite numbers 31/29 and the large house (No: 10) which occupies it was built for his daughter. (info not verified purely from vendor when we were buying one of the properties mentioned!).
03 March 2021.
Re X491
J. Dean
To the right of the picture is the end of Markham Avenue, and then Canada Road with the old converted Methodist Chapel at the top, behind them to the left is the rest of the Canada Estate.
08 February 2019.
Consolidated by Ellaine Ellwood. 04 April 2021.
Last updated: 01 November 2022 – All images updated.
