Description

1.
5111 CROSS LANE
Horton BD7

Three-storey block to south-west

at Cross Lane Mills

(formerly listed as Cross Lane Mills)
SE 1431 NE 51/175 17.12.76

II

Former spinning mill, begun 1821 by Eli Suddards and completed by James Cousen.

MATERIALS: coursed stone 'bricks', brick toilet tower.

EXTERIOR: The mill has three storeys plus attic, and is ten windows long and three bays deep. There is a stair turret at the north-west end and a combined brick toilet tower and hoist tower to the rear (north-east). At the south-east end is a single storey lean-to, possibly a former boiler house. A gable ended section projects in front of the south-west elevation at the southern end, possibly a former engine shed. Attached to this there is a later, single-storey flat-roofed building extending across the southern half of the main mill. A range of later sheds is attached to the rear (north-east).

Most of the windows are late C20 timber framed 8-over-8 sashes, with some metal frames to the gable ends and rear. Both gable ends have blocked Venetian windows with square mullions, and there are sill bands at each floor. The stair tower has a hipped roof and paired round-headed windows to the front (south-west). To the rear the openings are blind. The building has a coved eaves cornice. The toilet tower and hoist at the rear is in brick, the top part rebuilt in the C20 with windows in the upper part of the toilet tower. An external stair, encased in corrugated metal, leads from the stair turret to the hoist tower.

INTERIOR: the ground and first floors retain rows of cast iron columns with line shafting, those on the first floor being encased in modern boxes. The second floor is open and has steel ceiling beams and a replaced floor. The attic floor retains its original floor with hatches, and the roof structure is largely intact. The pegged timbers consist of open trusses supported by two vertical struts on each side with a cross beam across the centre. Extra supports have been added in places, with metal ties. Two small skylights have been inserted.

HISTORY: The building at Cross Lane was begun in 1821 by Eli Suddards and completed by James Cousen, a local woollen draper who opened the building as a spinning mill, one of the earliest in the area. The main range is shown on the OS 1:10560 map of 1852, while the 1893 1:2500 map and a 1:500 plan of similar date show a building with a larger footprint stretching to the north-east, probably including weaving sheds and other ancillary buildings. Two separate but attached buildings (possibly boiler house and engine room) and a chimney are depicted at the south-east corner. By the early C20 an extension had been added to the south-west front, and the complex was identified as a worsted mill. It continued to operate as a mill into the mid-C20, and became a mosque towards the end of the C20. The single storey sections to the south-east have been used as a garage and are currently being converted for use by the mosque.

SOURCES
Wrathmell, S; West Yorkshire Textile Mills Review of Listing, Gazeteer, RCHME (2004)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The former spinning mill of 1821 at Cross Lane, now the Jamia-E-Islamia Mosque, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: it is an early example of a multi-storey spinning mill, dating to the first quarter of the C19, with an original roof structure
* Regional industrial context: it represents an early phase of the development of the nationally important woollen textile industry of West Yorkhire
* Evidence of industrial process: it retains evidence of the industrial process of textile manufacture in the survival of cast iron columns with line shafting and an external toilet and hoist tower.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26426136

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Old House Care and Repair