Summary
A textile mill built in the 1820s and extended during the 1830s with later C19 additions.
Reasons for Designation
Holmes Mill, a pre-1840 textile mill with later additions is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: Holmes Mill, with its three- and four-storey spinning blocks and warehouse, has architectural interest and makes a significant contribution to the local townscape;
* Date threshold: much of the Holmes Mill complex is largely unaltered and is recognisably of pre-1840 date;
* Intactness: despite the loss of the weaving shed roof Holmes Mill remains a relatively intact textile mill complex complete with an in-situ 1910-built engine;
* Integrated site: the mill complex comprises a range of buildings relating to the textile manufacturing process. This includes spinning blocks and engine houses of differing dates that afford the opportunity to study the evolutionary development of these specific building types.
History
Holmes Mill was established in about 1823 when the first multi-storey spinning block and size house was built on the site by John Taylor. A second spinning block, known as New Mill, was erected in about 1830 by Edmund, John & James Mercer & David Murray, who purchased the original mill and incorporated the two spinning blocks into a single manufacturing complex. In 1848 a four-storey office and warehouse extension was added to the east end of the c.1823 spinning block and size house. A weaving shed was added to the north of the New Mill in 1853, by which time the mill complex housed 16,000 mule spindles and 707 looms and was powered by at least two beam engines. A gatehouse was added between 1847 and 1886. Clitheroe Manufacturing Company Limited took over production in 1884 and by 1887 577 looms, weaving printers and shirtings were in operation powered by a beam engine aided by a 24" x 3' stroke horizontal engine. Shortly after Clitheroe Manufacturing Company's takeover the original 1820s block was stripped of machinery and later used as Clitheroe Technical School up until 1916. In 1905 New Mill and its associated buildings was sold to Henry Parkinson who furnished it with 496 looms and leased it to James Thornber. New boiler and engine houses were erected in 1910/11. At this time the beam engine was replaced with a Clayton, Goodfellow & Company cross-compound horizontal engine which remains in situ. In 1939 the original 1820s block was reopened by Norman Roberts for yarn doubling. In recent years the 1905 boiler house has had its Lancashire boilers removed and the building converted into a warehouse, the 1853 weaving shed has been largely rebuilt, re-roofed and its north lights and early machinery removed, and the original 1820s block has gone out of use. Part of the complex remains in use as a weaving mill.
Details
PLAN: the mill is sub-rectangular in plan with a yard along the east side of the complex and most buildings lying to the west of the yard. From south to north these buildings consist of the 1820s spinning block and size house, a 1910 boiler house with an earlier single-storey building and the mill chimney to its rear, a 1910 engine house, an1830s beam engine house with the New Mill spinning block to its rear, and the partially rebuilt 1850s weaving shed. There is a single-storey gatehouse on the east side of the yard opposite the 1820s block.
Sources
Books and journals
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
End of official list entry
