Pear New Mill

Pear New Mill

Cotton mill built 1908–1912, designed by A.H. Stott and Sons of Manchester and completed by Philip Sidney Stott. The mill site comprises a single-storey office building at the site entrance, a separate main mill with attached engine house and chimney.

The main mill is an imposing rectangular building of six storeys, clad in red Accrington brick laid in 4:1 English bond. It has a steel girder frame with cast-iron columns and concrete floors. The building features attached two-storey carding rooms (possibly added in 1917) and a three-storey reception and warehousing block. Windows are tall with nine panes and segmental arches; the top storey has round-arched windows. Characteristic terracotta details include decorative bands, lintels and eaves cornices. The flat roof is finished with corner towers mounted with concrete pear-shaped finials. The south-east corner water and stair tower has an oval top-storey windows, brick pilasters and bands, an elaborate parapet, and a pear-shaped roof. A tall brick stack with pilasters and moulded crown (probably with stone detailing) rises from the building. Highly decorated door lintels in moulded terracotta, especially to the engine house, carry the signature architectural theme throughout.

The interior was not inspected but is reported to contain a fine engine room lined in white glazed brick. The office building has similar decorative terracotta.

The engine was a twin Manhattan Compound made in 1912 by George Saxon of Manchester, with a 23-foot diameter fly wheel and 26 ropes. The fly wheel had 73 rope grooves and is 15 feet wide, probably the widest in a cotton mill. The mill had 52 pairs of spinning mules with a total of 137,312 spindles, and employed approximately 300 people.

The mill was originally planned as a double mill, but the second part was never built. In 1929, the mill was acquired by Combined Egyptian Mills, a large merger of 15 small companies controlling at least 30 mills. The building was modernised in the late 1950s when electrically-driven ring frames were installed. In 1965 it was taken over by Carrington Vyella. The mill closed in 1978 and is now in multiple occupation.

The mill was designed by Abraham Stott junior. His father founded the firm in 1847 and retired in 1884; Jesse and Abraham junior continued the business, while their brother Philip Sidney set up a separate practice. The firm was actively involved in promoting new mill-building companies. In 1907 Abraham promoted the company, making contact with men in the cotton trade willing to finance and direct it. The six directors, including A.H. Stott himself by 1909, were local men involved in other mill developments. It proved difficult to raise sufficient capital at the end of the Edwardian cotton boom, and by 1912 a new board of directors bought the unfinished mill from the liquidators. A.H. Stott was dismissed with accusations of extravagance, and his brother Philip Sidney, one of the most prolific mill architects, was responsible for completing the building, including the office building.

The mill is representative of the limited liability companies (the 'Oldham Limiteds' and 'Stockport Limiteds') which were a dominant force in the industry by the late 19th century. A very fine example of an early 20th-century mill, it illustrates the refinement of mill architecture of that period, with the signature architectural theme being typical of the style used by the new limited companies.