Hey Lane Mill

Hey Lane Mill is an integrated cotton spinning and weaving mill built between 1800 and 1823, with extensions and possible partial rebuilding around 1830-40. It is constructed from roughly squared uncoursed rubble stone with slate roofs.

The mill complex consists of two three-storey ranges at right angles to each other, and a range of weaving sheds forming the third and fourth sides of a courtyard. The power transmission system no longer survives.

The eastern block, built in at least two phases, is now three-storeys high with a 12-window front and a four-bay return gable. The roof has six transverse ridges. A stone string course runs above the first-floor windows. A parapet is present. Loading doors are in the return walls and centrally to the rear elevation of the courtyard, partially blocked but reinforced with cast iron around the jambs. The original build was likely the northern six bays, initially two storeys high, and raised in height when the middle range was added, connecting it to the southern range. A present loading bay to the left of the middle range, at the angle with the southern range, may be an original feature, though it has been altered and enlarged.

The southern range is also three-storeys high with an 11-bay front and four-window returns, featuring Palladian windows in the gable apexes. It has been extended north-westwards by a block housing a round-arched entrance doorway.

A large detached block of weaving sheds is located to the west of the site, consisting of eight long ranges with saw-tooth roof ridges, Welsh slate, and partial glazing. Weaving was carried out on the site by 1823, although the sheds probably date from around 1840. The earliest factory was built in 1800 by James Dyson, quickly followed by extensions known as the ‘middle’ and ‘new’ factories. Although an old mill was said to have been burnt down in 1825, the northern part of the eastern range is likely to be the remaining structure of the original building, with the new and middle mills adjoining it to the south.

While the mill does not survive complete – there is no visible engine house or other power transmission elements – it represents a good example of an integrated mill planned around a courtyard, reflecting a period of rapid business expansion and multi-phase construction.