Hunslet Mill

Details

LEEDS

SE3132 GOODMAN STREET, Hunslet
714-1/44/867 (North side)
10/01/86 Nos.23 AND 25
Hunslet Mill
(Formerly Listed as:
GOODMAN STREET, Hunslet
Hunslet Mill)

GV II*

Flax mill. 1838 and c1842. Probably by William Fairbairn for
John Wilkinson, with later alterations by John Clark. Red
brick with stone details, slate single and double-gable roof,
brick parapet, stone coping. L-shaped plan.
East range: 7-storey mill of 25 bays on river edge and 3 bays
to Goodman Street facade, 5-sided stair tower to rear; regular
fenestration, stone string courses and cornice, 2 brick
pilaster strips to corners; 6 bays to right have a regular
pattern of round tie plates on upper storeys.
South range, fronting Goodman Street, of offices and
warehouse: 2, raised to 3, storeys, 10 bays to left and 12
bays to right of slightly projecting 3-bay entrance block with
remains of wooden gate in carriage entrance flanked by
pedestrian doorways in a facade of banded rusticated masonry
with voussoirs; central part-blocked 3-light window flanked by
single lights all in architraves with cornice over; regular
fenestration, slightly cambered rubbed brick arches, divided
by 2 pilaster strips to left and right of entrance. Rear: not
seen in detail, regular fenestration with a 5-sided projecting
stair tower to left.
INTERIOR: offices have remains of fine Greek/Egyptian-style
plasterwork to ceilings and shutters to windows; the east
range frame comprises 3 longitudinal rows of cylindrical
cast-iron columns supporting inverted T-section
'elliptical/parabolic' beams developed by Eaton Hodgkinson in
the 1820s and carrying brick fire proof arches and stone flag
floors. The south block front has 2 rows of cast-iron columns
and construction of similar type.
HISTORICAL NOTE: John Wilkinson (1799-1856) was renting the
Trafalgar Mill, Meadow Lane in 1830 for flax spinning and
bought a field on the bank of the River Aire in 1840 from
George Goodman and building began immediately. William
Fairbairn was the leading engineer and designer of mill
buildings in the first half of the C19 and was responsible for
Armley Mills from 1805 (qv) and Saltaire Mill, 1850. In 1842
John Clark was employed as architect, probably for the



refronting of the Goodman Street facade when the range was
raised from 2 to 3 storeys.
By 1847 Wilkinson employed 1500 female flax reelers in the
largest single-build mill in Leeds. After several fires in the
1860s Hunslet Mill was offered for sale in 1869. The last and
individually the largest of the great flax-spinning mills
built in Leeds throughout the 1820s and 30s, the first having
been established by John Marshall, Marshall Mills (qv). The
west range was demolished in 1986.
In a very derelict condition at time of survey. For detailed
architectural record of the building and its history see RCHME
report.
(RCHME: Goodall I & Giles C: Hunslet Mill, Goodman Street,
Hunslet, Leeds, W Yorks (M179): 1985-; Industrial Archaeology
Review: Fitzgerald RS: Development of cast-iron frame in
textile mills to 1850: 1988-: 142; Binney M, Langenbach R &
Powell K (SAVE): Satanic Mills: Industrial Architecture in the
Pennines: 1979-).




Listing NGR: SE3147732147

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

465102

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Langenbach, M, Binney, R, Bowell, K, Satanic Mills Industrial Architecture in the Pennines, (1979)
Industrial Archaeology Review in Industrial Archaeology Review, (1988), 142

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