Reasons for Designation
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679/0/10342 OLD LANE
01-MAR-11 DEAN CLOUGH
(Off)
CROSSLEY'S MILL
GV II
Former warehouse, 1830s.
MATERIALS: coursed dressed sandstone with slate roof.
PLAN: it is aligned approximately east-west, alongside the north bank of the Hebble Brook. It has two-and-a half-storeys, rising to three on the south side where the ground is lower.
ELEVATIONS: The north elevation has twelve window bays, the tenth bay from the left being a taking-in door at first floor level. The raised ground floor has taking-in doors in the fifth and tenth bays, and an entrance to the left end approached by external steps. All the taking-in doors have been converted to windows. The windows have stone cills and small-paned glazing, and the door has a stone architrave. Three windows between the two taking-in doors at ground floor have a lower, continuous stone cill and a cast iron plate above, possibly the lower flange of an inverted T-beam. The basement floor has recessed stone panels in line with the windows above.
The south elevation has a full run of twelve windows at first and second floor level, while at ground floor there are two entrance doors to the right, with a third entrance in the ninth bay from the left with evidence of alteration in its jambs. The ninth and tenth first floor windows have a continuous stone cill and cast iron plate lintel similar to that on the north elevation, as do the eleventh and twelfth windows.
The west end, formerly attached to other buildings now demolished, has a hipped roof, two upper windows and a ground floor entrance.
The east gable end has a central line of taking-in doors, the upper two with doors and the lower two blocked. There are further blocked windows to each side, one extant window to the right, and a covered footbridge leading from Fearnley Mill entering at first floor level.
INTERIOR: The interior has timber floors, cast iron columns and queen-post roof trusses braced with steel framing in places. The building was undergoing conversion at the time of inspection.
HISTORY: James Akroyd and Sons occupied a mill in the Hebble valley north of Halifax from 1815. Several buildings including a spinning mill (Fearnley's Mill) and a warehouse (Crossley's Mill), were built by Akroyds in the 1830s, while the original Bowling Dyke Mill, a spinning mill, was destroyed by fire in 1847. It was quickly rebuilt, with a first phase to the east opened in 1849 and a second phase to the west in 1851.
A Rating Valuation map of 1836 shows the outline of a building on the site of Crossley's Mill, but in a form that suggests that it was still under construction at the time. It was certainly in existence however by the time the 1847 OS Five Foot Plan was surveyed, where it is shown in some detail though without being named. Other buildings were attached to its western end until well into the C20.
The Akroyds were engaged in worsted manufacture and their complex spread over a considerable area to the east and north of the Crossley complex at Dean Clough, including the Haley Hill complex and Copley Mill. Akroyds, along with Crossleys, were major industrialists and benefactors of Halifax. Their business suffered decline from the 1890s, and various parts of the site were sold into different ownerships. John Crossley and Sons Ltd bought most of the estate in 1969, when the warehouse acquired its current name, and consequently became part of the Dean Clough estate.
SOURCES:
Fitzgerald, Dr R, Proposal to Rationalise the Current Listed Building Situation at Dean Clough Mills, Halifax, Structural Perspectives, (2009)
Fitzgerald, Dr R, Historic Building Assessment of Crossley's Mill, Fearnley's Mill and the Jemmy Lane Range, Dean Clough, Halifax, Structural Perspectives, (2009)
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
Crossley's Mill at Dean Clough, Halifax, a former warehouse for the Akroyd worsted manufacturing complex dating to the 1830s, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Integrated complex: Crossley's Mill is part of an integrated mill complex producing worsted
* Regional significance: Halifax was an important centre for the worsted industry in the C19
* Date: it is an early example of a dedicated warehouse building as part of an integrated complex, and is one of the earliest surviving buildings at the nationally important group of mill buildings at Dean Clough
* Industrial process: the warehouse demonstrates its original function in its surviving taking-in openings and construction
