Clayton’s Tower

The hills south of Bollington and northeast of Macclesfield have for centuries been actively used for quarrying and were also previously used for coal mining. Hence, people might assume that many of the structures built in this area are related to one of these industrial activities.

Standing alongside Windmill Lane, Clayton’s Tower was for a long time thought to be one of these old industrial structure. The brick building, which was constructed by local industrialist William Clayton in the mid-nineteenth century, consists of a cylindrical shaft with a crenelated top sitting on top of an octagonal base. The fake narrow windows and the initials WC in the brickwork give this building additional flair.

People previously assumed that the tower was a fanciful ventilation shaft for a coal mine, a chimney for machinery related to coal mining, or some other type of industrial works. The tower was even described as a chimney when it was given a Grade II listing (for “particularly important buildings of more than special interest”) in 1983. However, people found during restoration works in 2009 that the floor was solid rock, so it could never have been used as a ventilation shaft, and the interior lacked any soot stains, which indicated that it was never used for machinery.

One possibility is that William Clayton passed away before completing the rest of the coal mining complex connected to the tower, so the tower was never used. The other possibility, however, is that this castle-like tower is simply a folly that was meant to be purely decorative. In any case, the real purpose of the tower remains unknown to this day.