Description

SJ8993 HOULDSWORTH STREET, Reddish
701-0/13/102 (West Side)
10/03/75 Houldsworth Mill

GV II*

Cotton spinning mill. 1865 with early C20 additions. By AH Stott of Oldham. For Henry Houldsworth. Red brick, slate roofs. A symmetrical double mill, two 4-storey blocks of 18 bays separated by the narrower 5-storey 9-bay central block with large clock and date plaque on parapet and flanking stair towers. Single-storey ranges front the spinning mills. In a flamboyant Italianate style with pilasters rising between windows, the top storey windows round-arched and towers having key-pattern brickwork, deep bracketed eaves, pyramid roofs.
The mills are approximately 12 bays deep; tall octagonal stack with corbelled crown and original engine house to rear, centre.
INTERIOR: fireproof construction composed of transverse brick vaults supported by cast-iron columns and beams. The central block housed warehouse, offices and main entrance; the flanking spinning mills housed preparation on ground floor and long spinning mules above, a total of 130,000 spindles in rooms 35m wide. Powered processes also in the attic storeys, lit by full-length glass panels in the mansard roof, probably early C20. The original engine house had horizontal shafts driving the main upright shafts in the end towers. The spinning blocks were re-equipped C20, when new engine houses were built for separate inverted-compound engines and external rope races replaced the upright shafts.
Other C20 additions include enclosed staircase at S end, covered loading shaft on N end, 5-storey block attached to NW. HISTORY: Henry Houldsworth was a spinner in Little Lever Street, Manchester who installed a steam engine in 1796. He moved to Glasgow in partnership with his brothers and by 1816 the firm employed 622 people, (Fit ton, p.148) .The builder of this mill was the nephew of the founder of the firm. An outstanding example of a mill designed as the centrepiece of a model community; the quality of composition, reflecting the different uses of the complex, show that the architectural form was of primary significance. The firm of Abraham, Stott was one of the most important mill designers of the period. (Fit ton RS: The Arkwrights, Spinners of Fortune: Manchester: 1989-: 148)

Listing NGR: SJ8907393324

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Houldsworth Mill, Reddish at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q12060558

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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