Croal Mill

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 22/08/2012

797-1/4/43 SD70NW 04/11/96

BOLTON BLACKSHAW LANE (West side) Croal Mill

II

Cotton spinning mill. 1908. By Bradshaw and Gass. For the Croal Spinning Company Limited. Closed as cotton mill in 1967 and now used as warehouse by mail order company. Site comprises spinning mill, with engine house projecting at one angle with rope race alongside; boundary wall with ancillary buildings against its inner face, gate lodge/office building.

EXTERIOR: spinning mill is red brick with flat concrete roof and concrete, steel and cast-iron internal structure. 6 storeys, 10x5 bays, with wide windows between narrow brick pilasters, the brickwork corbelled out above the fifth floor. Stair tower projects from north-east angle; Byzantine detail, with banded buff brick angle pilasters and terracotta dressings, stepped and with volutes at upper stage, and stepped windows in groups of 3. Segmentally arched and oriel upper windows, and shallow dome with volutes at angles. Engine house projects from south-east angle with 3 round arched windows; boiler house alongside to south. Blind segmentally arched panels to adjacent rope-race. Single storey entrance lodge/office building, with plain tiled roof and buff brick banding and terracotta dressings. Central pedimented gable over entrance.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

Wall to eastern boundary forms screen to ancillary buildingswithin the yard, and is divided into panels by pilaster buttresses. A striking detailed early C20 mill, by a notable specialist architectural practice, which survives almost intact, and which shows how the manufacturing processes were separated on different storeys of the building. (Williams M: Cotton Mills in Greater Manchester: London: 1992-; Longworth J: The Cotton Mills of Bolton: Bolton: 1987-).

Listing NGR: SD7011808551