Decker Mill Old Mill

MANCHESTER

SJ8498 REDHILL STREET, Ancoats 698-1/17/461 (North West side) 20/06/88 Old Mill and Decker Mill (Formerly Listed as: REDHILL STREET, Ancoats (North West side) Murray's Mill)

GV II*

Cotton spinning mills, now clothing factory. Old Mill (to the W) built in 1798, with Decker Mill added to the E in 1802. Brown brick with slate roofs; internal structure of cast iron columns and timber beams. The 2 mills form a continuous range parallel to the canal; both now 7 storeys (although 8 storeys when built), the original 11 bays of Old Mill extended by the 10 bay Decker Mill. Small windows with flat arched brick heads. Stair tower serving both mills towards centre of rear elevation, and 2 narrow heating or ventilation towers against this rear wall. Detached engine house in the yeard beyond (a mid C19 replacement), and octagonal stack with moulded cap adjacent to it. Internal structure has been modified, but it is likely that the original design incorporated joisted floors carried on cruciform cast iron columns (as surviving in part of New Mill, qv). Truncated remains of wing to Bengal Street elevation was formerly a 4-storeyed range used for warehousing, and had been added to the site by 1906. History: built for Adam and George Murray, as the earliest part of what became a large textile working site. The mills were originally provided with their own canal basin in the yard to the rear, which was linked to the Rochdale Canal by an arched tunnel under the street. Fairbairn and Lillie's first major contract was for the renewal of the machine shafting in this mill. Together with New Mill to the rear, these mills are highly significant as a large early textile working site, developed as a single concern around a courtyard/canal basin. Old Mill is also the earliest surviving mill in Manchester.

Listing NGR: SJ8507298584