Hooley Bridge Mills

HEYWOOD

SD81SE BAMFORD ROAD 335-0/6/10016 (West side) Hooley Bridge Mills

II Cotton spinning and weaving mill: spinning mill 1830-40; additions c1900, including offices and weaving sheds. Spinning mill: brown brick laid in irregular English bond, slate roof.

EXTERIOR: Spinning mill is a long 5-storey block built along the steeply-rising Bamford Road, the downhill end having a basement storey, opening now blocked and wrought-iron railings on chamfered stone plinth. Originally of 25 window bays, the 2 northernmost bays an unbonded extension of unknown date. Now 23 original bays, the 2-bay extension having been lost following a fire in 2006. The 6 southern bays of the block are intact, but fire damage to the other bays has resulted in the loss of the original roof, roof trusses and top of walls down to fourth-floor window sill height. No road-side entrances; stone sills and wedge lintels to tall windows (lst-3rd storeys and to almost square windows in 4th and 5th storeys.) Integral engine house defined by round-headed window with glazing bars, rises through lst and 2nd storeys, bay 5. Dentilled eaves coping; round-headed blind gable windows, gable copings. SW side: projecting staircase/toilet tower at south end has shallow pyramid roof. Upper-floors ornate cast-iron fire escape with ornamental brackets incorporating 'CM' in roundel.

INTERIOR: Cast-iron columns with fire-proof segmental brick arches except for top floor, which is open with queen post trusses with raking struts. Fire-proof stone staircase. Mill yard paved with stone setts. At the south (downhill) end a red brick block and 2-storey tapering office building built into the angle between Bamford Road and Hooley Bridge, possibly the engine house for power to the weaving sheds (see below). Probably Accrington bricks, terracotta details. Ventilated roof, segmental-headed windows, tall round-arched window on west side. The weaving shed is set low down next to the River Roch: late C19/early C20, white-painted brick, 4 parallel slate north-light roofs, taller linking block with entrance and loading doors on main road and roof lights to rear (yard side).

HISTORY: a water-powered mill was built on the site by Joseph Fenton in 1826 and the 1848 Ordnance Survey map marks the surviving main range as a cotton mill. The power looms in the weaving shed were driven by a Buckley and Taylor compound beam engine between 1902 (a likely date for the additions). An early mill built on a large scale and surviving almost intact; the siting, on the steep hill slope close to the river, adds to the architectural qualities of the building and its associated housing. A fire in the spinning mill on 23 December 2006 resulted in the loss of 2 unbonded north bays (uphill), part of the roof and top of walls of original block, gate pier (c1900), wrought-iron gate and front railings.

Listing NGR: SD8539211641