THE LODGE
The Serpent
Peel Street Mill had a large reservoir known as ‘The Lodge’. This body of water covered the area at the rear of the Cherwell Wellbeing Hub, which is now the garden and pet farm.
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Vast amounts of water were needed to power the machines in the mill, and the reservoir ensured that there was a constant and steady supply. It was reckoned to be about six feet deep.
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In August 1884, a strange creature was seen swimming around in the reservoir. One of the lads who worked in the mill’s goods yard, named Buckley, managed to catch the creature which was described in local reports as a ‘reptile’.
It was two feet and eight inches long and nobody knew what it was. Buckley was bitten on the hand by the creature, and luckily his skin wasn’t broken. That’s very lucky indeed because the likelihood is that it was Cottonmouth Moccasin or water snake, which venomous.
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Much of the cotton that was spun at the mill was imported from the southern United States. It’s likely that the snake found a cosy place in a cotton bail in Louisiana or Mississippi and was transported to Heywood, whereupon it sniffed out some water and took a dip in The Lodge.
The reptile was taken to Heywood police station, where nobody knew what it was, so they killed it and placed it in a can in the porter’s room.