The River Dean rises at Longclough in Macclesfield Forest on the western edge of the Peak District foothills above the village of Rainow in north east Cheshire, England.
Together with a number of tributary streams it is impounded by the dam at Lamaload. The river flows on to and passes through the village of Rainow, the town of Bollington, through the fields between Whiteley Green and Butley Town, Prestbury, on through the grounds of Adlington Hall, thence to Deanwater, Handforth, and finally it joins the River Bollin between Wilmslow and Styal.
Below the dam there is a waterworks owned and managed by United Utilities. The water saved in Lamaload Reservoir is used to supply Rainow, Bollington and other places. Next to the road bridge in Rainow village can be seen the early twentieth century waterworks built by Bollington Urban District Council. Shortly after passing Rainow the river flows north down the two mile long Ingersley Vale with Kerridge Hill to its western side. It is very quickly joined by the stream from Hayles Clough which rises to the east above Ginclough. From Ingersley Vale the river finds its way through Bollington, out of the hills and into the Cheshire Plain at Lowerhouse (part of Bollington).
The historically notable section of these streams is between Ginclough and Lowerhouse. This length supported a large number of early watermills and is recognised as one of the earliest developments in the English Industrial revolution on the western side of the Pennines. Some of the mills are described on the Bollington page.
Famous quotes containing the words river and/or dean:
“Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week.”
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920)