Description

LEEDS

SE2635 ABBEY ROAD, Kirkstall
714-1/22/885 (West side)
05/08/76 No.13
and Abbey Mills
(Formerly Listed as:
ABBEY ROAD, Kirkstall
(South side)
Abbey Mills including No.13 Abbey
Road)

GV II

Mill complex, corn/oil and wool, now light industrial units.
Early C19, incorporating remains of earlier mill buildings
destroyed by fire 1799; later C19 and C20 alterations. Coursed
squared gritstone, grey slate and stone slate roofs.
The complex has 4 linked ranges in rough L-plan, one side
parallel to Abbey Road; the masonry platform and bridge over
the goit, and the remains of a further range parallel to the
goit, to the south.
Main range has an early entrance block on the road side, 2
storeys and 3 bays with blocked round arch right, quoined
jambs, plain sills and lintels, 2 blocked doorways; on the
left return is No.13 Abbey Road: inserted doorway with
overlight and large windows, C20 frames, hipped roof, a
roadside wall with flat coping and plain stone gate piers with
shaped tops.
To right of the former entrance is the gable end of a 4-storey
block with blocked ground-floor entrance, small rectangular
windows and 2 inserted C20 windows. The gabled range extends
westwards approx 10 bays, part obscured by corrugated iron
lean-to: the small windows with large sills and lintels of the
original arrangement are altered towards the western end by
larger inserted openings, the original top-floor openings are
set well below the building's eaves line. The rear (N) side of
this range has enlarged 2nd-floor windows and an attached
lower range built with some very large stones and, on the E
wall 1st floor, a blocked voussoired flat arch and square
windows with stone surrounds, gable to right.
On the masonry platform at the W end of the site and standing

at right angles to the 4-storey block there is a 4-storey,
11-bay range built with burned stones, possibly from the 1799
fire. It has a part-blocked round archway centre, W side, 2
tiers of tall 6-pane windows and 5 small windows under the
eaves, right. Two 1st-floor windows are blocked, one of the
stones having shallow well-cut date '1814'. The S gable is 4
windows, circular panel in gable, gable coping and short
stack. The N end is altered but in the gable a tall loading
door with flanking square windows; to N again a 3-bay
single-storey shed with north lights.
The 2-storey, 6-window range parallel to the present yard
access, possibly a finishing shop, has herring-bone tooling
and tie-stone jambs to the paired doors, right, square windows
in plain stone surrounds, original form right, 2 knocked into
1 and lintels raised centre and left, an ashlar ridge stack,
raised in brick, to right of centre. 2 further 2-storey bays
with altered openings, right. Across the yard, and parallel to
the mill's tailrace, the single-storey range was possibly the
drying house; N end demolished, stone and brick ranges
probably the remains of machine shops, stables, etc.
The remaining features of the site are the masonry platform
and the tail-race bridge, the latter approx 30m long, 3
buttresses, 2 wide segmental arches with rusticated voussoirs,
rounded coping to the low ashlar parapet wall.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the mill is thought to stand on the site of a
medieval complex processing corn. A major fire in 1799
resulted in extensive rebuilding and by the 1820s Ephraim
Elsworth worked a corn and oil mill here; parts were used for
the production of woollen cloth from the 1820s until 1961 when
it was bought by Leeds City Council. The 10-bay range with
small windows is perhaps part of the corn mill, while the tall
western range, former drying house and finishing shops relate
to woollen manufacture.

Listing NGR: SE2627735718

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26548164

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

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]