Former Gidlow Mill

Former Gidlow Mill

An integrated cotton spinning and weaving mill built between 1866 and 1868 by George Woodhouse for John Rylands and Sons. The mill has been altered over time but retains significant historical and architectural interest.

The mill is constructed of red, yellow and black brick with stone dressings, slate roofs, and a fire-proof internal structure of cast-iron frames with brick jack-arches. It occupies an elevated site immediately north of the Grade II registered Mesnes Park, with the spinning block forming the north-east boundary of the Mesnes Conservation Area and creating a striking visual landmark.

The buildings follow a reverse-L plan, with a spinning block aligned north-west to south-east, a north wing containing boiler and engine houses with a mechanics' shop and preparation rooms, and an attached weaving shed to the north-east.

SPINNING BLOCK

The spinning block is three storeys tall (with a basement boiler house) and designed in Italianate style. It is built of red brick in English Garden Wall bond with three courses of stretchers between header courses, featuring a chamfered plinth and broad polychrome bands in black and yellow brick that link the heads of the windows on all floors. Black crosses appear at first-floor level and geometric patterns decorate the upper stages of the turrets. The roof, concealed behind a parapet, consists of multiple hipped ridges covered in Welsh slate, overlaid with bitumen in 2021.

The principal south-west front facing the park is 392 feet long and comprises 36 bays with projecting square turrets at bays 1, 6, 11 and 36. The left and right turrets function as corner privy towers projecting above the parapet with corniced copings. The two central turrets project slightly higher with similar copings and flank the four bays of the original engine house. Eight bays immediately to the right of bay 11 are obscured by a 1980s steel-framed stair tower with pastiche geometric brickwork and missing glazing (as of 2021). The ground and first floors feature large segmental-headed twelve-pane timber windows, the second floor has pairs of round-headed windows, and all have polychrome heads; some openings have been altered.

The south-east wall is 108 feet wide and of nine bays including a corner turret on the left and a larger stair tower on the right. In bay 3 at mid-first-floor level, an altered opening marks where a bridge once connected to the GUS office.

The north-east wall is largely obscured at ground level by the second-phase weaving shed abutting it. A south-east tower adds an additional bay on the left, and bay 8 contains a hoist tower projecting slightly above the parapet. Beyond bay 27, the four-bay engine house and six-bay boiler house advance with a corner turret and a turret spanning the junction between them, crowned with a water tank at roof level. The boiler house has a roof tower where it meets the spinning wing, topped with a cupola. Each face of the cupola features a deeply moulded corniced pediment, a window with deeply moulded arched head and keystone, a moulded band at the springing point of the window arches, and a sill band. The tower windows retain geometric glazing bars. The boiler house itself has a symmetrical five-bay frontage between flanking turrets, with a second-floor taking-in door in the centre bay featuring a shouldered rusticated stone surround.

WEAVING SHEDS

An inner rectangular weaving shed connects the spinning block to an outer trapeziform weaving shed of 30 bays. The brick walls have stone copings, and the north-east wall exhibits a saw-tooth profile rather than a parapet, with polychrome brick decoration matching the spinning block. The roofs retain some Welsh slate and glazing. An engine house attached to the west is dated 1905 on its gabled wall. South of this stands an attached ancillary building of unknown purpose (now with flat roof) with polychrome decoration matching the original buildings and loading doors to both storeys.

CHIMNEY

A freestanding chimney stands to the north of the spinning block, constructed of red brick with polychrome decoration and stone cornices. It rises in three unequal stages: a square base, octagonal second stage, and wide round shaft. The base and second stage contain recessed panels with geometric patterns, including round-headed blind windows to the second stage with striped heads, each stage having a moulded cornice. The shaft features one moulded stone band and two friezes of black-and-yellow brick lozenges between black bands, plus fourteen steel belts and a modern metal cap with balustrade.

RESERVOIR AND ASSOCIATED STRUCTURES

A substantial mill reservoir survives along the north of the site, stone-lined and enclosed by a stone boundary wall. More than half is covered by a brick vault built off 74 stone piers, now topped with a concrete slab. A railway viaduct, also built off stone piers, runs along the west side of the vaulted structure and retains some timber railway superstructure. A further stone wall with spear-head iron railings forms the boundary with the park.

ELECTRICITY SUB-STATION

An electricity sub-station built in 1915 stands near the north-west corner of the spinning block. It is faced in red brick, two storeys tall, with large segmental-headed windows and a flat roof.

INTERIOR

The spinning block employs fire-proof construction based on brick jack-arches supported on cast-iron columns and beams, some marked with the maker's name J Musgrave of Bolton. The column heads feature plates for attaching line-shafting fixings, and some power-transmission features survive including bearing boxes. The upper floor ceiling is vaulted in form, fixed directly below the roof tie-beams with boxed-in timber beams and cast-iron ties on cast-iron columns. All ceilings are finished in lath-and-plaster, some of which survives. Staircases are of stone with dry risers in the centre containing shafts for carrying water for fire-fighting purposes, and some associated historic joinery remains. A full-height brick firewall separates the spinning wing from the north wing. Ashlar stone blocks are embedded in the engine house walls at ground-floor level, and the stone engine-beds may survive in the basement.

Large stone surrounds to the original boiler-house loading doors are visible from within the weaving sheds, as is the original principal entrance with rusticated stone surround. The weaving sheds retain their cast-iron columns and timber beams, with most of the timber roof structure surviving in poor condition (as of 2021). The weaving-shed engine house retains a full-height interior with some steel beams and fixings relating to the steam engine installation.

The sub-station interior retains cream and brown glazed tiles to the walls and two cast-iron staircases.