Lion Mill

Lion Mill is a cotton spinning mill that was steam powered and built in 1890 by the architectural firm Wild, Collins and Wild for the King Spinning Company Ltd. The card shed was extended in 1891, and a new warehouse was added in 1892. The mill features a cast-iron and steel-framed construction with brick-arched elements and is clad in brick.

The exterior consists of five storeys with a wide rectangular plan measuring 23 by 10 bays. The corners are accentuated by panelled pilasters, and there are narrow stilted arched windows. A main sprinkler and stair tower projects from the northeast elevation, dividing it into two unequal parts, likely reflecting a significant internal structural division. This tower rises two storeys above the roofline and is detailed in an Italianate style, featuring paired round-arched windows on each floor, white brick lettering, and a balustrated parapet. Additionally, there is a blind tower that projects from the southwest angle.

The elevations are otherwise undivided, with each bay containing a tall, segmentally-arched window. There is a loading area on the northwest elevation, which has cast-iron reinforcements for the doors in the first and second bays. Power transmission equipment is located to the southwest, where there is a projecting engine house with five round-arched windows and a partially glazed lantern roof. Although the boiler house no longer exists, a chimney remains next to the engine house.

Adjacent to the southeast gate is a detached office building, which is single-storeyed and consists of five bays with a central door and round-arched windows on either side. It has a hipped Welsh slate roof behind a parapet. Across the yard to the northwest is a two-storeyed warehouse that measures 10 by 2 bays. Lion Mill is included as a notable example of mill architecture from its period, remaining almost intact along with its separate warehouse.