Chorlton Old Mill

SJ 8397, 698-1/19/38

MANCHESTER, CAMBRIDGE STREET (East side), Chorlton Old Mill

(Formerly Listed as: CAMBRIDGE STREET Mill on south-east corner of junction with Hulme Street)

11/03/88

GV

II

Cotton spinning mill, converted to accommodation in 1993. The earliest mill on the site was built in 1795, considerably extended c1810, and then largely rebuilt in 1866. Brick with slate roof (missing at time of inspection). Single range of a formerly U-plan mill survives: six storeys over basement, 14x8 bays, each with rectangular window with flat arched head. Panelled corner pilasters. Former shallow wings to each side to rear. Interior construction is cast-iron columns and beams carrying transverse brick arches (some columns encased in steel), and with three bays of cast iron arch-braced roof trusses. Later C19 rebuilding involved re-use of some at least of the structural iron-work, but it is likely that the roof structure dates in its entirety to the 1860's.

HISTORY: as Chorlton Twist Company, the earliest mill on the site was developed by Robert Owen before he moved to New Lanark. He sold it in 1809, and a series of alterations and extensions followed. The C19 owners of the mill also developed the adjacent Chorlton New Mill, (qv) with which Chorlton Old Mill forms a group. This the surviving building on the site, is a partial rebuild of an early C19 mill, with an unusual cast-iron roof structure.

Listing NGR: SJ8396597285