Crimble Mill: spinning mill, attached engine house and fire-proof warehouse, and attached warehouse

Crimble Mill is a cotton spinning mill later converted to woollen textile production. The mill building was constructed around 1825 for Charles Stott. The engine house and fire-proof warehouse were added in the 1850s, followed by renovations to the mill in 1886 when it was converted for woollen textile production, and an 1880s warehouse attached to the mill's north gable.

The mill complex is located in a tight bend in the River Roch to the south-west of Rochdale. The main mill building runs approximately north to south on the west side of the complex, with the river close to its west side and a now-infilled mill reservoir immediately to the east. The 1850s engine house and fire-proof warehouse are attached to the southern end, and the 1880s warehouse to the northern end. The separately listed Grade II chimney stands immediately east of the engine house.

The Spinning Mill

The mill is constructed of red-brown brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with a ratio of five stretchers to one header course, set on stone foundations with stone dressings and a Welsh slate roof. It stands five storeys high with an attic and extends 16 bays along the east side and 17 bays along the west, where a projecting staircase tower stands at the north end. A dentilled eaves band runs beneath stone copings that conceal the box gutter. The windows are rectangular with stone sills and wedge lintels, fitted with four-pane timber casement frames; many ground and first-floor windows are currently blocked. The attic receives light through roof lights set into the east and west roof pitches.

The west elevation features a round-headed doorway with a small adjacent window in the first bay (the staircase tower) and a second round-headed doorway in the ninth bay. Both doorways have rusticated stone arched frames with large keystones and are presently bricked up. The stonework of the first doorway wraps around the left-hand corner of the building; the right-hand corner has low-level stone quoins. Below the first-floor window above the second doorway is a stone plaque inscribed "CRIMBLE / MILL / 1886". The third bay contains an inserted doorway with a steel lintel. The staircase tower has been heightened above the dentilled eaves band and features a similar band at its new roofline. It supports a cast-iron water tank surrounded by a walkway with railings.

The east elevation was built immediately next to the west side of the reservoir, with stone footings and two stone-lined recesses marking the position of the wheel pits inside the mill. Roughly at the centre of the ground floor is a large cast-iron box with a pair of brick-infilled openings. A full-height privy tower projects slightly in the north-east corner.

Both north and south gable walls have central round-headed windows with stone frames lighting the attic, with small windows above having stone sills and lintels. The round-headed windows are now partially infilled with brick. The north gable wall is largely obscured by a 20th-century brick lift tower abutting the east side of the heightened staircase tower and by the attached 1880s warehouse. The south gable wall is similarly obscured by the engine house. A full-height privy tower stands in the south-west corner, with its left-hand side projecting slightly and containing small square window openings with vertical metal grilles on each floor.

Inside, the mill has joisted timber floors supported by timber beams and cylindrical cast-iron columns. The column tops have bolting faces on four sides for machinery and line shafting, now removed. The lower four storeys use iron compression boxes to transfer loads in the columns around the timber beams. The lower storeys have three rows of columns, while the fifth storey has a single central row without compression boxes since there are no columns in the attic. Some areas have steel reinforcing joists, perhaps to support heavy machinery, and metal sheet ceilings for fireproofing. Some window openings have chamfered or partly-chamfered brick sills.

The roof has a very shallow pitch with timber collar trusses that create a spacious, well-lit attic without requiring king posts or queen posts. The outer ends of the rafters meet the top of the low side walls and are supported by inclined timber struts projecting inwards from the wall base. The tops of these struts connect to the floor beams via angled metal tie-rods passing through the attic floor approximately 1.2 metres in from the side walls. A lath and plaster ceiling runs at collar level and along the sloping sides, with rectangular roof lights on each side between each truss.

The bottom storey lacks windows on the east wall but has a pair of wide stone arches, both blocked, indicating where water entered and suggesting that two wheel pits were located side by side at the centre of this floor, probably housing undershot or breast-shot wheels. The floor is stone-flagged.

The south end wall abuts the later engine house and features large cast-iron boxes for the upright shaft and bevel gears, of at least two different types and dates. These appear to have supported horizontal shafts attached to the end wall in each storey. The north end wall of the attic has an attached small shaft box of early or mid-19th-century date, indicating that the attic was used for powered processes.

Upper floors are accessed by a stone closed-well staircase in the staircase tower at the north-west corner. A later compartmentalised staircase enclosed with boarding and narrow double-leaf timber doors stands at the southern end.

The Engine House

The engine house is built of red-brown brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with a ratio of five stretchers to one header course, set on a stone plinth. This tall single-bay structure abuts the south gable wall of the mill, extending above the height of the fourth storey and spanning from the east corner to the privy tower projecting from the south-west corner. The west side is taller with a single-pitched roof, while the east side shares the gabled roof of the adjoining fire-proof warehouse. Both east and west elevations have tall round-headed windows with stone sills and timber frames. The west elevation has an inserted wide opening at ground level with shaped brick jambs. Above the round-headed window is a rectangular window with stone sill and wedge lintel. The south elevation has a high-level square window.

Inside, the engine house has a brick jack-arched ceiling with heavy iron suspension rings fitted to the iron beams. The cast-iron beams at either end of the upper level have decorative brackets supported on carved stone corbels. The room was originally a single space from ground floor to the jack-arched ceiling, but timber floors have been inserted after the steam engine was removed. There are infilled boxes in the north wall between the engine house and mill, one with a decorative moulded frame with corner roundels. Above the engine house is a small room with a mono-pitch roof with rafters resting on one purlin. A tool rack hangs from the roof purlin and benches line the outer walls.

The Fire-Proof Warehouse

The fire-proof warehouse stands four storeys high and four bays long, extending southwards from the engine house at slightly over half the width of the mill. It is built of red-brown brick in English Garden Wall bond with a ratio of five stretchers to one header course. The upper level of the outer south gable wall has been rebuilt. In June 2019 the roof structure over the second, third and fourth bays collapsed. Emergency works resulted in the removal of slates, broken roof trusses and the upper part of the third floor down to window sill height. The remaining roof over the first bay has Welsh slate with gutters concealed behind stone copings at the wall top.

The surviving rectangular windows are taller than those of the mill, with similar stone sills and wedge lintels. Where window frames survive they are timber casements. The first bay of the west elevation has original taking-in doors to the three lower storeys with stone sills and lintels and quoined stone jambs. The lintels have iron frames, previously fitted with timber rollers, set into the lintels to reduce friction when lifting goods. The top-floor taking-in door has been converted from a former window, with a projecting steel beam and chain at lintel level and an iron plate attached to the wall between the sill and lintel of the taking-in door below. On the right-hand side an iron bracket projects. All taking-in doors have boarded doors.

The south gable wall has several ground-floor openings and a high-level round-headed window in the rebuilt section.

Inside, the floors are of fire-proof construction with transverse brick jack-arches supported by cast-iron beams with a single central row of cast-iron columns with moulded heads. The attic retains a timber king-post truss with diagonal braces; the timbers appear to be reused floor beams with notches cut for joists. Several windows on the east side have heavy timber shutters. A large lead-lined water tank stands at the north end. There are openings and cast-iron boxes set in the north wall adjoining the engine house, and a hanging bracket attached to one of the cast-iron beams on the ground floor.

The 1880s Warehouse

This building is attached at an angle to the north gable wall of the mill and is narrower at its northern outer end. It is built of red-brown brick in English Garden Wall bond with a ratio of five stretchers to one header course. The eastern wall is supported on a riveted iron beam above basement level. Gutters are supported on gutter brackets beneath a Welsh slate roof. The building has a partial basement and two upper storeys, with five bays on the western side and three bays on the eastern side. Most windows have segmental brick heads and stone sills; the partial basement windows on the eastern elevation are square with stone wedge lintels. Window frames are timber casements and several windows have been bricked up. The third bay of the western elevation has a bricked-up first-floor taking-in door replacing a window, with a projecting steel hoist beneath the lintel.

The eastern elevation has an angled eaves line rising towards the right-hand side. A doorway has been inserted in the first bay immediately adjacent to the angled corner with the mill.

The north-east gable wall has two small windows at first-floor level on the right-hand side. These rectangular windows have riveted iron beam lintels and timber frames. Lime-washed bricks at ground-floor level indicate a former single-storey building now demolished.

Inside, the interior has timber floors. The partial basement has timber cross beams supported by cast-iron columns and closely-spaced joists. The column tops have bolting faces on four sides for machinery and line shafting; some line shafting remains in place. The second floor has king-post trusses with raking struts. The first floor was not accessible and was not inspected.

All materials are brick with stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs throughout the complex.