Barrow Bridge is a model village

Model village

A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, in most cases built from the late eighteenth century onwards by industrialists to house their workers...

, in the township of Halliwell

Halliwell

Halliwell may refer to:People with the surname Halliwell:* Eddie Halliwell, British DJ* Ernest Halliwell , South African cricketer* Geri Halliwell , British singer...

 in Bolton

Bolton

Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...

, Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

, England. It was created in the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

 but since the demolition of the mills is now a residential village.

John and Robert Lord opened a cotton mill

Cotton mill

A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....

 using water power from the Dean Brook

Dean Brook

Dean Brook is a river near Bolton in Greater Manchester.Historically within Lancashire, Dean Brook rises on Smithills Moor and flows in an easterly direction, collecting Dakin's Brook at Barrow Bridge and runs through Smithills, before meeting the Raveden Brook to form Astley Brook, which...

 which powered spinning mule

Spinning mule

The spinning mule was a machine used to spin cotton and other fibres in the mills of Lancashire and elsewhere from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Mules were worked in pairs by a minder, with the help of two boys: the little piecer and the big or side piecer...

s invented by Samuel Crompton

Samuel Crompton

Samuel Crompton was an English inventor and pioneer of the spinning industry.- Early life :Samuel Crompton was born at 10 Firwood Fold, Bolton, Lancashire to George and Betty Crompton . Samuel had two younger sisters...

. The brothers built 13 cottages near the mill for workers. In 1830 Thomas Bazley and Richard Gardner bought and demolished the mill, replacing it with Dean Mills, twin six-storey steam powered

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

 mills situated on the east side of the brook at the entrance to the village. They created a model village for the mill workers on the hill top accessed by a flight of stone steps, with rows of cottages, a shop and an educational institute. Houses for the managers were built a short distance away, overlooking the brook. William Callender bought Dean Mill in 1861. The company went out of business after his death and the mill was demolished in 1913.

Benjamin Disraeli visited the village in 1840, it is the basis of the fictional village Millbank in his novel, Coningsby

Coningsby (novel)

Coningsby, or The New Generation, is an English political novel by Benjamin Disraeli published in 1844.-Background:The book is set against a background of the real political events of the 1830s in England that followed the enactment of the Reform Bill of 1832...

, published in 1844.