Lower Paradise Mill

Lower Paradise Mill is a silk mill dating from around 1862, with alterations and renewals made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is built of red brick in English Garden Wall bond with Welsh slate roofs and an internal structure of timber beams carried on cast-iron columns.

The building is a four-storey structure with a thirteen-window range, set at an angle to Park Lane where its south-west corner meets the adjacent Upper Paradise Mill. The three right-hand bays project slightly and house the main entrance and staircase. A three-storey infill extension to the rear connects with an engine and boiler house and a square chimney positioned in the north-east corner. The two southernmost bays in the south-east corner are slightly recessed and do not extend to full depth. The roof is unusual in having a double-pile construction and is concealed by a parapet with alternate stone copings raised by a single course of bricks and slightly overlapping their lower neighbours.

The external brickwork uses variable bonding but predominantly headers every sixth course. Windows throughout have been renewed, though the original openings remain intact with segmental-arched brick heads and stone sills. The main entrance at the far right has a surround dating from around 1930 in artificial stone. The entrance block on the right-hand side has been raised by a storey in its two rightmost bays, built in a different brick with aligned windows, and at the extreme right a further blank storey houses lift gear. A fire escape spans bays 1-3, and a porch has been added to an inserted ground-floor opening in bay 3.

The left-hand return is abutted by an adjacent single-storey Sunday school; behind the ridge of its roof is a now-infilled central first-floor window opening. The gable is otherwise blank with flat top at the level of the Sunday school roof ridge. The east wall is abutted by buildings, with a monopitch roof sloping back to the infill extension. The south elevation abuts Upper Mill on the left, with inserted windows and timber cladding between them on the right.

The interior structure comprises timber beams carried on a central row of slender circular cast-iron columns positioned 22 feet (6.7 metres) from the walls. The roof is spanned by trusses with king posts either side of a central valley, with supporting struts. The columns are fixed via metal shoes bolted to the underside of the beams and metal footplates resting on the beam below, abutted by floorboards.

The attic contains the most significant interior features. All roof timbers are exposed, along with the underside of the cast-iron valley gutter. Approximately 20 looms with Jacquard machines attached above are fixed to the floor and roof via a timber framework. Various other machines for winding, spooling and other functions are also installed. The design office at the south end has been altered for museum use but retains its original glazed tongue-and-groove partition. The Directors' office in the south-east corner is lined with tongue-and-groove and retains historic furniture including a desk and safe, with an adjacent 'National' time clock for punching in and out.

At second-floor level the beams are boxed-in with tension rods added beneath, fixed by shoes bolted into the sides of the beam at the ends and either side of the columns. The first- and ground-floor beams are exposed. Nearly all structural timbers are hewn, and various notches and mortices indicate that some have been reused, possibly from an 18th-century mill. The boiler and engine house has been heavily altered, though traces of power transmission remain including bearing-boxes in walls and possible line-shaft hangers.

The building is furnished with wrought-iron railings at the back-of-pavement with decorative cast ball-flower finials.