Dale Warehouse

The Dale Warehouse, dating to 1806 and designed by William Crossley, was originally a canal warehouse, later serving as the Warehouse of the Rochdale Canal Company. A waterwheel was added in 1824. Constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof, the building has a rectangular plan oriented on a north-south axis, incorporating shipping holes in the rear (east) wall and a waterwheel adjacent to the south end.

The original west-facing facade, apparently symmetrical with a 1:3:1 bay arrangement and a slightly projecting central section, is mostly obscured by later wooden sheds. The building rises four stories over a basement, displaying a plinth, quoins, horizontal bands at four levels, a moulded cornice, and a parapet over the projecting centre. Windows originally had raised sills and plain surrounds, many of which are now blocked with brick. A segmental-headed doorway with a gudgeon for a former wall-crane is situated on the garden floor of the south end. The north gable features three windows on each floor, with a Venetian window in the attic displaying a lettered keystone (illegible from the ground) and original small-paned glazing in this and two adjacent lower windows. The south gable, now the primary entrance front, has a central round-headed doorway leading to a raised ground floor, with a single rectangular window on each side. A full-height round-headed loading slot is located above the door, complemented by loading doors at each level, including the attic (though the first-floor door is partially concealed by a signboard). A hoist-canopy covers the top loading door. The rear elevation has two semicircular shipping holes in the centre, a round headed doorway to the left, four windows on each floor above, and a small gable over the left-hand windows.

The interior reveals two rows of cast-iron columns with unusual integral struts to long, fish-bellied plates that support timber beams. The lower portions of the columns are octagonal, with integral flanges on the upper floors for longitudinal shuttering. A subterranean wheel-pit runs parallel to the south wall, containing a 16-foot breast-shot waterwheel (built by T.C. Hewes), featuring hub-mounted gearing and remnants of wooden spokes and wrought-iron and wooden buckets. This waterwheel formerly powered hoists within the warehouse and in a now-demolished warehouse to the south, through a line-shaft mostly intact beneath a car park.