Chorlton New Mill And Attached Chimney

Chorlton New Mill and Attached Chimney

A cotton spinning mill, now partially used as a rubber processing works, located on Cambridge Street in Manchester. The complex was built in phases between 1814 and 1845, with the chimney added in 1853.

The original mill block, built in 1814, runs parallel to Cambridge Street and comprises 8 storeys (including 2 below street level) with 20 bays. Each bay features a small rectangular window with a cambered brick head. The building is constructed in red brick with slate roofs throughout, with a cast iron and brick fireproof internal structure. An internal engine house occupies the north end, segregated from the main body by a cross wall that incorporates the vertical main shaft, ducts, ventilation system and hoist. A fireproof staircase is located behind the engine house. Originally the mill included an internal boiler house to the south of the cross wall. The internal construction consists of cast iron columns supporting cast iron beams and transverse brick arches. The original roof structure may have been cast and wrought iron but was later replaced. A parallel single-storey roof-lit shed stands in a narrow yard to the front of the mill, possibly built as a loom shed in the early to mid-19th century.

An octagonal chimney constructed of brick with iron bands, dated 1853, stands adjacent to the north-west of the mill.

In 1818, a wing parallel to Hulme Street was added, comprising 6 storeys and 12 bays. This section features a central segmentally arched entrance to a yard and small rectangular windows with cambered brick heads in each bay. It too has a fireproof internal structure of cast iron columns and transverse brick arches. A 3-storey office building adjoins to the east.

In 1845, the two existing ranges were linked by a 6-storey block to the south-west of the site, on the corner of Cambridge Street and Hulme Street. This section has 6 bays facing Hulme Street and 4 bays beneath parallel gables facing Cambridge Street. Blocked round-arched windows cut by later fenestration indicate a former internal engine house in the south-west corner of this building, originally intended to serve all three blocks on the site. This engine house was originally paired with a boiler house and chimney on the opposite side of the street, connected by a tunnel at least until the construction of the existing chimney to the north. This building also has a fireproof internal structure.

Weaving sheds were added to the north of the site in 1829 but have since been demolished and built over.

The mill was developed by a partnership that also operated the nearby Chorlton Old Mill and other mills on Oxford Road. By 1838, this partnership had formed a collaboration with Charles Macintosh, who was using the nearby Cambridge Street rubber works site for the production of rubberised cloth.

The 1814 mill is considered a fine example of early large-scale mill building and may be the oldest surviving fireproof mill in Manchester. The multi-phase site represents a characteristic example of 19th-century urban mill development and layout.