Hi lillyj
The cottages in all the photos were def there in that period. Most of the mill workers cottages were built mid to late C18th. In the pic I posted, I live in the second house from the right! In the lower part of the village, there was no development here between something like 1789 and 1986 - when six new houses were built and some flats. The difficulty is that a lot of properties that were there aren't any more - many were just very rough built and in very poor condition. So, although there are now only 35 residences, there would have been a lot more, when the mill was at its height. Corless Cottages, a biggish row in the upper part of the village is still there - but other than that, most of the properties up there are mid 20thC - not sure if they were greenfields builds or replaced older properties.
I understand that, by the sixties, virtually all of Lower Dolphinholme was virtually derelict. I know that, as our house backed on to fields, pigs were kept in what is now my kitchen - it was originally a separate one room cellar dwelling. In the 70s the house was 'done up' very roughly and a staircase put through to allow access to that part of the property from the rest of the house, and it then all became one, so to speak.
