The village is immediately to the north of the Staffordshire border, close to the Peak District National Park.

At 9:10 am on Friday 17 July 2015, a number of people were injured, four killed or missing, and the mill destroyed, by at least three explosions at the Wood Treatment site.

[7] Paul Hitchen, of the Urban Search and Rescue team, said, "The scale of the incident...is unprecedented in this country in the last 10 years.

[9] After an extensive investigation by Cheshire Constabulary and the national Health and Safety Executive, Wood Treatment Ltd was charged with corporate manslaughter in November 2019.

[10][11] Following a 12-week trial, both the firm and its managing director were acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of lesser health and safety offences.

They closed in the 1920s but reopened in the 1930s for their final task of grinding wood into a fine flour to make Linoleum, Bakelite and explosives.