17 Milnrow Road

Summary

House and domestic workshop, early C19 (built prior to 1824). Alterations of the ground floor to a shop in the late C19.

Reasons for Designation

17 Milnrow Road, a house and domestic workshop built in the early C19, with a late-C19 shop front on the ground floor, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an early-C19 three-storey house with an upper domestic workshop identifiable by a distinctive long multi-light window, typical of hand-powered loomshops;
* built of watershot masonry, a vernacular construction technique traditionally used for rural industrial buildings in the area, confirming its status as an early urban workshop.

Historic interest:
* as an increasingly rare surviving early-C19 house and domestic workshop in central Rochdale, once a common feature due to the town’s long association with the woollen industry, persisting for several decades after cotton started to dominate other towns in the area;
* the building represents an urban influx of weaving and related trades from the surrounding countryside at a transitional time in woollen textile production when spinning had been mechanised in mills, but weaving continued to use domestic hand power.

Group value:

* the house and domestic workshop has group value with the nearby listed Newbold Buildings (former Rochdale Conservative Industrial Co-operative Society Building), the buildings indicative of the woollen textiles industry and the Co-operative Movement, two important strands in Rochdale’s economic and social history.

History

17 Milnrow Road was built as a three-storeyed house and domestic workshop in the early C19. The building was part of a greenfield development of new streets, industry and housing related to urban expansion around Drake Street and the Rochdale Canal terminus from about 1799. It is shown with rear extensions and an attached row of houses to the west on a Plan of Rochdale surveyed in 1824 by William Swire, published in 1825 in Baines’ History, Directory and Gazetteer of Lancashire. Rate books indicate that the owner and occupier from the mid-1820s was John Pickup, after whom the adjacent Pickup Street was presumably named, but do not give an occupation. In 1826 the building was identified as 'house and stable'. The 1844 tithe map and the 1:1056 Ordnance Survey map published in 1851 show a longitudinal spine wall beneath the roof apex, with industrial use indicated in the rear part and domestic use in the front. The OS map shows the building standing at the eastern corner of a group of mainly back-to-back houses built around a triangular yard named as Taylor Square; the majority of these buildings have since been demolished.

From the late 1840s to the late 1860s rate books identified the building as a 'beer house' (1849) or 'beer house and workshop' (1857), which by 1858 was known as 'Moss Tavern' after Vicar’s Moss, the old name for Milnrow Road. In 1849 it was still owned and occupied by John Pickup, but by 1857 it was owned by James Cheetham. In about 1910 the premises was occupied by the Tweedale Brothers, cycles and motors. An historic photograph from this time shows by this time the building had two large shop windows on the ground floor, with three two-over-two pane sash windows on the first floor and a workshop window on the second floor. The west gable wall had a painted shop sign beneath a large second-floor window with a two-over-two pane sash, and there were stacks to both gables, now (2022) removed. From about 1916 to about 1954 the premises was occupied by Whatmough Brothers, cycle dealers and repairers.

Details

House and domestic workshop. early C19 (built prior to 1824). Alterations of the ground floor to a shop in the late C19.

MATERIALS: coursed, watershot masonry with ashlar dressings.

PLAN: the building is rectangular with a canted east elevation adjacent to Pickup Street.

EXTERIOR: the three-storey, three-bay building stands forward from the adjoining buildings, abutting the pavement on the north side of Milnrow Road. The symmetrical front elevation is constructed of coursed, squared sandstone blocks laid watershot (the upper edges of the blocks tilted slightly outwards) with a plinth, larger alternating quoins and a slightly projecting eaves course topped by a moulded stone gutter. The ground floor has a central door with a shop window to each side. The doorway has a timber surround with a slightly-projecting moulded canopy. There are two circular iron bosses beneath the canopy. The plain board door is recessed within the doorframe with two stone steps. The large shop windows are presently both boarded up; the timber shop fronts of pilasters, consoles, fascia and cornice remain (as seen about 1910 in a historic photograph). The first floor has three vertical rectangular windows with stone surrounds, the central one now bricked up. The outer windows now have three-light timber casements. The second floor has a ten-light, stone-mullioned workshop window. The stone lintel forms part of the slightly projecting eaves course.

The west gable wall is only partially visible as it is abutted by the recessed adjoining house. It is constructed of coursed, squared sandstone blocks laid watershot, with a plinth of narrower blocks and quoining to the outer, right-hand corner. The second floor has a vertical rectangular taking-in door or window with stone sill and lintel, now bricked up.

The east end wall is angled beneath the roof apex to follow the bend in Pickup Street. It is constructed of watershot, coursed, squared sandstone blocks with quoins to the outer, left-hand corner. To the left-hand side is a small, inserted window at second-floor level. To the right-hand side is a wide doorway with a timber lintel, now blocked up. Above, the first and second floors both have a wide, rectangular window with a timber lintel and four-light timber casements.

The rear (north) elevation is constructed of roughly-coursed rubblestone with evidence of much alteration, probably in connection with the former attached buildings. At the right-hand end of the first floor is an inserted doorway with a cement frame and metal external stair. On the first and second floors are a series of blocked window openings. Two modern, square windows have been inserted on the second floor.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

Sources

Other
Roethe, J and Williams, M 2019 Central Rochdale, Greater Manchester Historic Area Assessment (Historic England Report Series 56/2019).
Historic photograph showing 17 Minrow Road. Reference: Touchstones, Rochdale, photograph of c1910, Milnrow Road, Streets 1096.

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