Shaw Lodge Mill Warehouse and Mills, Halifax, Calderdale

Description

HALIFAX

679/0/10278 SHAW LANE
03-APR-07 (East side)
Shaw Lodge Mill Warehouse and Mills

GV II*
Group of warehouse and two spinning mills for worsted production.

Warehouse, 1862, in coursed dressed gritstone with ashlar dressings. Irregularly shaped floor plan to accommodate narrow sloping site with roads to either side. 5 storeys above ground at north-west end, 6 plus basement at south end. Parapet round roof with dentilation at its base.

West face has altered vehicle entrance to the right and a blocked window to the left, with 2 2-over-4 wood framed windows on each of remaining 4 floors. South-west face has 10 2-over-4 windows, then loading doors, then 7 more windows. Additional row of 5 windows to the left and 6 to the right of the loading doors at new ground level, with a personal door at the right hand end. Hoist in place over the loading doors.

North face has 14 windows, with central block of 5 breaking forward, 3 windows on north-east corner and 5 on east face. An external metal fire escape stair runs up from the west end of the north face.

At the south-east corner is the privy block in Italianate style, which breaks forward to the east and rises 1 storey above the rest with a pyramidal slate roof. It has ashlar stonework and round-arched windows, 4 to each floor, separated by pilasters and divided by projecting string courses on each floor, with a blocked round-arched entrance on the ground floor where the ashlar is rock-faced.
Interior: a series of open sheds with iron supporting columns, some with additional, later supports, and extending into an additional basement floor to the south. Top floor open to roof structure with original A-frame wooden trusses. Linked by internal doors to adjoining mill buildings.

Mill, 1830 and 1850, in coursed dressed gritstone with ashlar dressings with C20 replacement metal sheet roofs.

Mill No 1, dating to 1830, has 2-over-4 or 1-over-4 wood framed windows on 2 storeys, with 14 windows to the front (west facing) elevation plus a single window at the southern end in a forward projecting block. Entrance at north end. There is an extra, lower storey at the southern end because of the drop in ground level. The southern end has several blocked windows at different levels, and part of its upper gable end rebuilt in brick. The rear (east facing) elevation has 14 windows on 5 storeys, plus one bay in a tower rising above the roof level. Some windows blocked at ground and first floor.

Mill No 3, dating to 1850, has a forward projecting block of 3 windows at the southern end of the west elevation, with an entrance on the south side. Continuing north are 7 windows over 3 storeys, a central, gabled block breaking forward, of 5 windows with an extra storey in the gable and wider windows in the centre, probably adapted from loading doors, then a further 7 windows. 3 northernmost bays are ashlar faced at ground floor level, with blind segmental arches above the central window and the entrance to the north.

Interior: mainly open sheds with free-standing machinery, ceilings supported by iron columns; those in No 1 Mill individually stamped with the manufacturer's name and date 'BATES 1830'. Fireproof vaulted construction to ceilings. Some original floors and staircases, some later insertions. Office spaces inserted at the junctions of the component buildings.

HISTORY
The firm of John Holdsworth & Company was founded in 1822 by John Holdsworth, whose family were already woollen textile manufacturers and merchants in Shibden then in Halifax. They specialised in worsted cloth, produced by hand loom weavers, but developments in mechanised spinning led in 1822 to John Holdsworth establishing his first spinning mill to join a growing number of worsted spinning mills in Halifax. The location of this is uncertain, but by 1825 he was purchasing land at Shaw Lodge and his first mill on the site is dated to 1830. This is the extant `No 1 Mill' on the present site.

Further developments in the industry led to the gradual mechanisation of the weaving part of the process, and the first power loom weaving shed was begun at Shaw Lodge in 1844. This was accompanied at around the same time by further spinning mills and, in 1852, by an extension to the weaving shed. The No 2 Mill, dated to between 1831 and 1839, was to the south of the extant buildings, and at right angles to them leading eastwards to the Hebble Brook. It is unclear whether what is named as No 3 Mill and dated 1850 in a plan of 1925 was built as such, as earlier plans call it a warehouse, though it was certainly in existence by 1855, standing to the north of and adjoining No 1 Mill.

The mills appear to have been steam powered by 1839, with separate engines for each of the two mills. By 1855 a separate engine house, boiler house and chimney were built on the eastern side of the site, with underground power connections to the mills. By this time, the firm had invested in Jacquard looms and in 1851 won a medal at the Great Exhibition for their worsted cloths. Branches in Bradford and London were run by members of the family, and John Holdsworth had a house, Shaw Lodge, close by the western side of the site, now demolished.

Continuing prosperity led to the construction of the 7-storey warehouse to the north of No 3 Mill in 1862, and the separate office block with adjoining stable in 1865. A workshop and shed at the north end of the site, and a tower and timekeepers office at the northern end of the weaving sheds were added in 1876.

Since then, alterations to the buildings have included the loss of the No 2 Mill and the southern end of No 1 Mill, the reconstruction of the stables, extensions to the engine house and boiler house, and the reroofing of most of the weaving sheds and mills. The firm continues to operate up to 2006, having survived the demise of most woollen manufacturing in the country, specializing in the production of moquette for the bus and coach trade. The site is due to be redeveloped.

SOURCES:
www.holdsworth.co.uk "over 200 years in the textile industry"
R.C.H.M. Yorkshire Textile Mills 1770-1930, 1992
Wrathmell, S. Unpub. notes

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE
The importance of the Yorkshire textile industry is widely acknowledged, and has been examined thematically by English Heritage. The survey of 1992 identified the complex at Shaw Lodge Mill as sufficiently significant to merit listing at Grade II*.

The warehouse and mills at Shaw Lodge fully meet the national criteria for designation in terms of their original form, evidence of features which reflect their original function and in their architectural interest. The rare dated cast iron columns confirm the early date of the mills. Additionally, the group is an essential component of an important and largely intact complex which contains examples of a full range of buildings associated with a nineteenth century worsted mill. The completeness of the site makes it of high importance in the history of this nationally significant industry and the warehouse and mills, as core components of this, merit a high grade.

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Shaw Lodge Mill Warehouse and Mills

A Grade II* Listed Building in Halifax, Calderdale

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