Description

The entry for:

SE1032
39/1088

THORNTON ROAD DB13
Main Block of 3 Parallel Ranges with linking blocks At No 297 (Prospect Mill)

II

Shall be replaced by:-

SE1032
09-August-1983

THORNTON ROAD
THORNTON
Prospect Mill

II

Four ranges of mill building, parallel with the road and descending the hillside. Begun 1848 with additions 1849, 1855, 1850-60. Built in sandstone 'bricks' with stone slate roofs.

Road-side warehouse block dated 1855 of 3-storeys with basement (4 storeys to rear), and 14 bays in length. Road elevation is the main façade, having roughly dressed rustication to ground floor and shallow ashlar quoins. String course over ground floor. Console brackets to eaves cornice. One bay incorporates superimposed hatches. Ground floor windows have segmental voussoir arches. Large segmental arched waggonway entrance with grooved ashlar surround and voussoirs to centre right, giving access to mill yard. Two further doorways in north wall. Eastern end windows have parallel splays suggesting a possible office area next to owner's house. To the centre of the front at first floor level, is a fine cast iron bracket supporting an octagonal lamp. Date plaque of 1855 has ivy pattern surround and a relief carving of a hanging fleece. West and south walls plainer. Single storey projection to south west, of unknown function.

Single storey building links to second warehouse, dated 1849, parallel to road-side block. Three storeys, with south-projecting arm of two storeys plus basement. Western bay has carriage entrance with keystone bearing date of 1849 and initials JAC. Third storey probably a later addition. South arm originally not accessible from main block: probably an office area.

Linked from south arm to large mill, probably the earliest building, in existence by 1849. Earlier part is four storeys with attic, eleven bays long and three wide. The gable ends have Venetian windows at attic level. Round-headed windows to south side with sill bands. Wooden beams, joists and floorboards. Roof has trusses of queen-strut form with king posts above a collar. Taking-in doors central on north wall and privy tower on opposite wall. Several different types of cast-iron columns. Eastern extension of large mill of six bays, largely in same style but with columns with acanthus/lotus flower capitals on ground and basement floors. Taking-in doors in east gable, privy tower on south wall. Stair tower to north. Former engine house to west of large mill, projecting south.

Small mill, joined by engine house to the large mill and running parallel to the south, also of 3 storeys, 4 to south, and eleven bays long. Privy and stair towers projecting from southern angles with 4 round-headed windows to front. Sill bands to each floor and console bracket eaves cornice. Sashes with keys and impost band. All the windows retain glazing bars. This range is probably of circa 1850-60. The mill chimney has been felled.

HISTORY
The site was first used around 1831 by Joshua Craven as the centre of a putting-out system, and developed as a mill from around 1848. The first mill building, the large mill, was in existence by 1849 and the first warehouse, dated 1849, followed soon after. Craven continued to buy up plots of land to accommodate his growing business, and by 1851 the firm was described as a worsted manufactury employing 240 people. The business continued to expand, with the small mill built in around 1850-60, and the second warehouse fronting the road in 1855. The firm of Joshua Craven & Son continued until 1875, when the buildings were bought by Adolphus Getz of Bradford, and subsequently by others until at least 1929. The mill is now used in part for textiles and otherwise as light industrial units.

Listing NGR: SE1017232609

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26600565

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

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)