Details
SE 02 NE DEAN CLOUGH
679/4/423A DEAN CLOUGH
07-APR-82 A and B Mills
(Formerly listed as:
OLD LANE
DEAN CLOUGH
DEAN CLOUGH MILLS: A BLOCK, 1841-44.)
(Formerly listed as:
OLD LANE
DEAN CLOUGH
A AND B BLOCK)
GV II
Spinning mill, 1841 and 1844, in hammer dressed gritstone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. Plan: the two mills have six storeys and are aligned roughly east-west with Old Lane to the rear and originally facing south onto the mill dam, now onto the main car park.
EXTERIOR: 'A' Mill to the east has seven windows to either side of a 3-window projecting bay which has a central line of double panelled taking-in doors in continuous ashlar surrounds. The projecting wing is 2 windows deep and has a circular window in the pediment. A first floor band is inscribed A. 1841. To the right there is a double height arched entrance replacing the ground and first floor windows in the fourth and fifth bays, and to the right again a wide window with raised segmental jambs on the ground and first floors, and a double height arched window also with raised segmental jambs occupying the 2nd and 3rd floors (these housing the former engine room and boiler house). 'B' Mill to the west has a further 17 windows continuing the line of 'A' Mill, with the join marked by a raised gable. A similar 3-bay projecting wing and a final 7 windows form a symmetrical whole, with the central four windows topped by a pediment supported on brackets. The 'B' Mill projecting wing has a first floor band inscribed B. 1844. It is abutted by the later 'F' Mill to the west.
To the right of the main six storey block is a later, four storey block set back, a former fire station. This has 2 double height arched entrances to the south, now glazed, and two floors of 3 windows above with small paned glazing. The right return has a central row of double half-glazed taking-in doors with a small window in the gable above, two second and third storey windows to the left and one to the right, all with small paned glazing. The east elevation of 'A' Mill, partly obscured by this building, has a range of variously altered windows, some blocked, and a Venetian window in the gable with original small-paned glazing. The north side of 'A' and 'B' Mills form a continuous row of windows; from the east 16 windows, a projecting toilet block topped by a cast iron water tank, then 23 windows.
INTERIOR: Internally the ground and first floors of 'A' Mill and the eastern half of 'B' Mill are only half-depth to accommodate the rising ground to the north. The two mills are constructionally similar. The floors are timber, supported by a line of cast iron columns at near mid-span with an interval of 8ft (2.4m), creating 17 bays in 'A' Mill and 27 in 'B' Mill. No machinery survives.
HISTORY: John Crossley leased a water-powered mill at Dean Clough from the Waterhouse family in 1822, but he and his brothers had been carrying out worsted spinning and dyeing there since 1802. The mill stood at the eastern end of a mill dam formed from a leat from the Hebble Brook which runs to the south of the site. From 1841 onwards the Crossley family began building a series of engine powered spinning mills and weaving sheds at Dean Clough, used in the manufacture of carpets for which they became famous.
The first mill erected on the Dean Clough site by the Crossley family was 'A' Mill, a spinning mill for carpet manufacture built in 1841. 'A' Mill originally overlooked the mill dam, and was excavated out of the slope to the north, utilising the quarried stone in its building fabric. The engine room and boiler house were housed in the east end of the mill.
The construction of 'B' Mill followed soon after in 1844, adjoining 'A' Mill to the west and more than doubling the capacity of the works. The two mills were originally known as 'Centre Mills, 1 and 2', but renamed in 1855 with their current letters.
Power weaving sheds and further spinning mills together with other associated buildings followed through the C19, and continuing development in the C20 finally ended in 1982 when final carpet production ceased after a gradual run-down following the merger of John Crossley & Sons with Carpet Trade Holdings and the Carpet Trades Manufacturing Company of Kidderminster.
Reasons for designation
'A' and 'B' Mills are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Industrial complex: They are part of the integrated complex of mill structures at Dean Clough for the manufacture of carpets in the C19 and C20
* Historic interest: 'A' Mill was the first building on the site constructed by the Crossley family for their carpet manufactory, and additionally were the first buildings on the site to be steam powered
* Original features: They retain significant original features including fenestration, taking-in doors and cast iron columns, and survive in original form with little alteration
Listing NGR: SE0900725844
