Shaw Lodge Mill Engine House and Boiler House

Details

HALIFAX

679/0/10318 BOYS LANE 03-APR-07 (East side) Shaw Lodge Mill Engine House and Boile r House

GV II* ENGINE HOUSE 1855 with later addition 1895, in coursed dressed gritstone with heavy rusticated quoins and slate roof. The main building has tall arched double doors at south gable end, 2 blocked windows above with ashlar dressings and projecting lintels, and a projecting string course at first floor level. Triangular pediment with dentilation and a central cartouche with the date 1855. To the left is a lean-to addition with large entrance at south gable end and dentilation to the eaves.

Interior: the engine house is now empty, with metal stairs to left leading to first floor platform with trap door and iron hooks suspended from overhead beams for hauling equipment. The adjoining shed is fully tiled with maroon below and white above. Joinery and brick infill shows that the roof was originally double pitched. A square hole in the wall adjoining the engine house shows the mark of a wheel against the tiles. Trapdoor in the floor over tunnel for power cables running to other parts of the mill complex, including the chimney to the north on Boys Lane.

BOILER HOUSE 1855 with later addition 1942, in coursed dressed gritstone with corrugated iron roof. It has a double pitched roof, that to the earlier part with clerestory windows. The south front has a large entrance to the right in the later section, with corrugated iron in upper gable end and a small blocked window. In the earlier section to the left, there is a small door to right and a blocked Venetian window in upper gable. There is a curved corner to the west and widely spaced blocked windows along west side. The rear has a blocked Venetian window to the right (in the earlier section), and a large entrance to the left.

Interior: the 1855 part has original iron roof trusses, with a pierced iron beam supported on iron columns open to the later part.

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 engine house and boiler house at Shaw Lodge fully meet the national criteria for designation in terms of their original form and features which reflect their original function and their architectural interest. The construction of these buildings, along with the associated chimney to the north, was a comparatively early development in the history of the industry. Additionally, the group is also 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, including mills, weaving sheds and offices. The completeness of the site makes it of high importance in the history of this nationally significant industry and the engine and boiler houses, are central components of this.

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