Brooksbottom Mill

Brooksbottom Mill

A cotton spinning mill with late 18th-century origins, later extended to include integrated weaving, and now converted to residential use. The building was extended and re-fronted in the late 19th century and considerably reduced in the late 20th century. The work was designed by architects Russell and Whitaker of Rochdale for Edward Hoyle of Joshua Hoyle and Sons.

The mill is constructed of buff sandstone with slate roofs. Fletcher Bank Grit stone is used for quoins and window surrounds. The plan is rectilinear with projecting stair towers, and there is a separate rectilinear gatehouse and office building to the south-west. The spinning block stands on the north bank of the River Irwell, to the east of the viaduct carrying the East Lancashire Railway across the river.

Spinning Block

The south-facing front wall comprises nineteen bays across four storeys, designed in an Italianate palazzo style. It is built of regularly coursed dressed stone beneath a parapet with a moulded, bracketed cornice. Giant pilasters frame the ends of the façade, with a 2-3-2 window pattern to the left half, separated by further giant pilasters across these seven bays. These bays have a ground-floor deep cornice and projecting ashlar sill band.

Bays 6 and 7 contain an integral engine-house occupying the lower three floors. The ground floor has a rectangular channel cut through blind stone. The first floor features a tall tripartite window, and the second floor contains a Diocletian window with red and yellow polychrome voussoirs. To the right of the engine-house are two side-by-side ground-floor entrances (one now blocked and replaced with a window), with moulded shoulders relating to the cross-passage. These have a cast-iron lintel in two sections, extending to the right by a further five sections. The four right-most sections have windows beneath, set in infill ashlar walling. Further right is an arched entrance with polychrome voussoirs and rough projecting impost blocks, fitted with a glazed panelled door. A shallow buttress and some blocked features appear beyond this.

Above ground-floor level the remaining façade details are consistent across all bays, broken only by the pilasters. Each floor has a continuous sill band. The first floor features polychrome segmental window arches surmounted by a string course. The second floor has polychrome round arches surmounted by an impost band. The third floor has an impost band with round arch heads and keystones, with a string course linking the top of the keystones and running across the pilasters. Bay 8, above the cross-passage, is slightly wider than the eleven bays to its right.

Set back to the left is the south face of a projecting single-bay western stair tower. It is built of random-coursed squared stone with no bands or string courses. The window openings match those of the main front but feature quoined jambs; those on the first and second floors are set on landings below the main floors. The first-floor window has scroll ends to its oversailing moulding. At ground floor is a doorway with quoined jambs and a polychrome arched head with alternate projecting voussoirs, containing a six-panelled door with fanlight above. The exterior angle is quoined, with ogee eaves gutters supported by a dentilled course.

The left return is five bays wide, though the left-hand two bays are obscured by the stair tower. The three right-hand bays have the same bands and window openings as the south front, with quoined jambs and random-coursed squared stone, except where the front's stonework and cornices return briefly at the right. The central third-floor window has a projecting jib and pulley, and the first-floor window below has a plain stone lintel. The eaves gutter and dentilled course match those of the tower. The tower's west face matches its front elevation but has no ground-floor opening, and each floor's window is set half a floor down from the main block's window levels. The roofs are hipped and slated with a central valley, the tower roof hipped into the main roof.

The right return is of similar stonework to the left return and of the same width, but divided into six bays. The windows have simple squared stone sills and lintels. The ground floor is chamfered at the angle with the rear. Set back to the right is the blind east face of the north stair tower, with roof pitching up to the principal eaves.

The north-facing rear is built of random-coursed squared stone with dentilled eaves matching the returns. The fenestration pattern mirrors the front, with eleven bays at the left, then a wider twelfth bay, followed by 2-3-1, with the right-hand bay blind. There is no first-floor window to the tower to the right of this, though a segmental lintel arch is visible in the stonework. The tower is flush but separated by a straight vertical joint. A similar joint appears between bays 12 and 13; on the right this is fully quoined, but on the left is quoined only at window-opening level. Beneath a cast-iron lintel at ground floor in bay 12 is the wide, shouldered cross-passage opening. Adjacent windows have unglazed frames, with those next to these infilled behind. Bay 18 has a modern entrance with a large arch-roofed glazed canopy. Bay 3 has a projecting stair tower with windows between the main floors. All windows have quoined jambs and flat stone lintels and sills. All windows are timber replacements, mostly with nine equal panes, though the semi-circular arches contain a heart and three radial panes.

Gatehouse and Offices

The north-facing front is single-storey with six unevenly-spaced windows and a door at the right. The hipped slate roof is concealed by a parapet, and the deep eaves cornice is supported by shaped stone brackets. The stonework is dressed and coursed with a continuous sill band. The window openings have polychrome segmental arches oversailed by a moulded string course. The doorway has a fanlight and paired doors, each with three raised and fielded panels. A square gatepost with chamfered corners and pyramidal cap is attached to the right. Set back at the left is a small outshut with a lower roof, ogive cornice without brackets, and a single window.

The left return is blind, mostly obscured by the outshut. The right return has two windows matching the front. The rear wall facing the river matches the front in detailing and has six evenly-spaced windows, plus a small window in the outshut. The building stands above a coursed rock-faced stone retaining wall which continues left and right; the upper course is ashlar across the gatehouse face, forming a plinth.

The interiors were not inspected. A forecourt of stone setts forms the entrance to the site and continues halfway along the front of the spinning block. Within this is a mounted cast-iron piece of the power machinery.