Description

1106/2/21 BENT LEY ROAD
28-OCT-03 MELTHAM
(North side)
Bent Ley Mill

(Formerly listed as:
HUDDERSFIELD ROAD
MELTHAM
OFFICE BLOCK TO BENT LEY SILK MILL)
(Formerly listed as:
BENT LEY ROAD
MELTHAM
BENT LEY MILL)

II
Silk-throwing mill (raw silk) comprising warehouse and office block, attached shed and engine house with boiler house and separate chimney. 1840 for Charles Brook Coursed gritstone and ashlar outer walls, brick vaulted front range on cast-iron beams with parallel-sided flanges, hipped slate and part-glazed roofs, cast iron roof and supports in rear shed. Original 2-storey 7-bay office and warehouse block, 2 bays deep, the central three bays break forward under a pediment with a central clock face. Right return: an upper floor taking-in door, plain stone surround, altered late C20.
Interior: the front office / warehouse range has a brick vaulted ground floor; central staircase and a stone fireplace in the SE room. Original wide arched openings into the rear shed from the 1840 office range and a narrow doorway into the shed from the central bay. First floor: S corner office with moulded ceiling cornice, 6-panel door, architraves to windows with panelled shutters, fireplace with plain stone surround and moulded shelf.
Rear shed: 6 x 10 bays. Cast iron columns have moulded caps and slots for beams and arched open-work trusses carrying the north-light roof. The outside half-width bays have simpler trusses of tie, strut and principal form. I-section beams running the full length of the shed carry rain-water gutters; inverted T-section beams with inverted fish-bellied profiles carried line shafting, each truss drilled for bracket fixings. The SE wall has 5 doorways probably serving privies before late C19 additions. An ashlar block in the NE (back) wall marks the site of the power transmission shaft from the narrow beam-engine house surviving beyond. Also attached, the boiler house, NE of engine house, with freestanding octagonal-section tapering chimney to SE, cap removed and with iron banding.
History; Charles Brook was a member of the family who built Meltham cotton mills. He developed the silk business in the 1830s and built this mill in 1840, recorded as 'Brook and Nephews, silk throwsters, Bentlee Mills'.
Reference: J.Hughes, The History of the Township of Meltham, 1866.

Listing NGR: SE1096811262

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26479140

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

• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version