Spring Mount
The low building on the right of this picture was built at the time the new turnpike road (Preston New Road) was under construction in 1824, and by the middle of the Nineteenth century was the address of cotton manufacturer William Eccles. Having taken over his father's mill in Nova Scotia in 1831, he became one of the first Aldermen of the council in 1851, and the following year, shortly after opening a new and much bigger mill, Eccles was elected MP for Blackburn. Sadly for Eccles, he was unseated by the courts for bribery and corruption the following year, and died shortly afterwards.
The building became the Girls' High School, as which it was substantially extended to its present form.
Matthew Cole
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