Swan Meadow works western mill number 1, Eckersley Mills

This is a cotton mill forming part of an integrated complex, built in several phases between the 1860s and 1906 by AH Stott and Sons for ffarington Eckersley and Company. The main components date from 1884 and comprise a spinning block, boiler house, chimney and reeling block, all in an Italianate style. These are accompanied by part of an 1886 weaving shed, part of an 1860s boiler house, part of a 1905 weaving shed, and a winding and reeling block of 1906. The buildings have undergone later alterations but retain substantial original fabric.

The complex is constructed of red brick with buff sandstone dressings and slate roofs. The spinning block has a plinth of blue engineering brick and stone, while some of the weaving shed uses Huncoat (Accrington) brick. Windows are timber, and the structural system employs cast-iron columns, rolled-iron beams and common-brick floor arches.

The mill components are arranged with the spinning block aligned north-south with an integral engine house. Associated boiler houses, a chimney, and reeling and winding rooms lie to the north, with the weaving shed to the west and elements of a former weaving shed to the south and east. All these elements formerly comprised a single functional entity. The complex forms the north-western component of an important group of cotton mills on this site, which collectively constitute a substantial and striking feature within the Wigan Pier Conservation Area.

Spinning Block

Exterior

The spinning block is four storeys high and measures 23 by eight bays. It is built in an Italianate style using brick laid in English Garden Wall bond, with a strongly battered plinth, sill-bands at ground and third floors, stone parapet coping, and panelled pilasters at the corners and entrance bay. These pilasters terminate in dentilled cornices and raised parapets.

The principal east-facing front is asymmetrical, with long spinning rooms to the left separated by a two-window entrance bay from shorter preparation rooms to the right (in a ratio of 16:2:5 windows). The entrance bay pilasters are linked by a stone balustrade and topped by a Flemish gable dated 1884. The entrance itself has a pilastered doorway with shouldered side windows beneath a stone entablature and segmental pediment. Above are pairs of segmental-headed windows with stepped jambs, stone sills and imposts. The main ranges to left and right are very regularly fenestrated with large segmental-headed windows on all floors. These have arched brick heads, and the third-floor windows have keystones and stone imposts. Ground-floor doorways have been inserted at bays 7, 15 and 21 (counting from the left), with a later concrete ramp at bay 15 (excluded from the listing) and a large later brick ramp at bay 21 (also excluded). Most windows contain six or nine panes, some with opening casements. The slate roof has longitudinal ridges with hipped ends and stone-coped brick cross-walls.

The south end has 3+3 windows separated by a prominent latrine turret. This turret features paired lancet windows, a third-floor plat band, and side returns with three small windows that have stone sills and imposts. Bay 2 has a cast-iron fire escape. The plinth has some stone vents.

The rear (west) elevation matches the front, with a projecting full-height engine house positioned opposite the front entrance. This has the same detailing as the front entrance bay, plus a full-width round-headed window rising from first to second floor with pilaster jambs, a moulded stone head with large keystone, and wooden two-light joinery with circular tracery. Bays 10 and 11 are obscured at ground-floor level by a lean-to connection to the 1905 weaving shed. A cast-iron fire escape spans bays 2 to 4.

The seven-window north end has a turret in bay 8 similar to that on the south end, and a first-floor loading door in bay 2. Bay 4 has no ground-floor window, while bays 2 and 5 to 7 have bricked-up ground-floor windows. Bays 5 to 7 have no plinth. A single-storey square brick-built addition in bays 6 and 7 is excluded from the listing.

Interior

The structural system comprises cast-iron columns supporting longitudinal rolled-iron inverted-T girders. Each girder supports two iron cross-beams, which in turn support cross-wise plastered brick jack-arches running widthways. Every other arch therefore sits above a column. The arches are covered by concrete floors above. In the north end, there are also some additional girders connecting the cross-beams, but without supporting columns beneath them. Many columns retain seatings for fixing power-transmission equipment.

The top floor has columns without seatings, but power transfer boxes survive within the walls. Here the columns support cross-wise heads clasping timber tie-beams which also rest on stone corbels positioned between the window heads. The roof timbers also survive, and there is some survival of rainwater and sprinkler pipework.

A stone staircase provides access to the roof. A doorway between the two ends of the mill has moulded stone corbels forming shoulders, and there is a similar doorway (now blocked) on the stairs. The engine house retains the massive brick engine beds with a network of passages, together with some of the protective balustrading, power-transfer boxes, and iron and stone structural supports for the engines.

Weaving Shed

Exterior

Parallel to the rear of the spinning block and linked to it is a single-storey weaving shed with a north-light roof. Built of red brick, it narrows towards the south. Its east wall is of common brick and has a sawtooth profile with nine gables surviving from an original 17. It is partially obscured at the south end by a lean-to connection to the spinning block. The west wall is of common brick with Accrington brick parapet and is largely blind, though it has some blocked openings and plat bands. It is currently (2022) scaffolded and reduced in height at the south end. The north end is obscured by the attached 1906 winding block. The south wall is of breezeblocks set between exposed (formerly internal) iron columns and steel beams. The south roof pitch has no slates.

Interior

The structure comprises steel beams supported by iron columns, some of which retain seatings for power transmission fittings. Some of the beams support further short columns to timber purlins. The roof retains some north-light glazing and timber lining.

'New' Reeling and Winding Block (1906)

Exterior

This two-storey red brick building with flat roof is integrated to the north of the weaving shed. A taller lifting room occupies the south-east corner. The north elevation fronts onto Pottery Road and comprises a 21-window range with a twin-arched full-height engine house at the left. The main range has stone ground-floor sills, a dentilled brick ground-floor lintel band, and concrete sill and head bands to the first floor. Ground-floor windows 1, 14 and 16 (counting from the left) are bricked up, and there are entrances in bays 8 and 12. The dentilled band continues on the original brickwork of the engine house, which now has bricked-up arches and also features a brick corbelled and dentilled cornice. The left angle oversails the adjacent 1884 reeling room.

The cornice continues on the east return, which is abutted at ground-floor level by the 1884 reeling room. The first-floor windows are asymmetrically arranged in groups of 3:5:3 (from the left). At the left is a wide flat-topped gable to the lifting room, which has a hipped slate roof and clerestorey north and south returns, with corrugated iron roofs to the aisles.

The south wall is mostly abutted by the 1905 weaving shed, but its east end has stacked loading doors with some lifting gear in situ. The south-east corner is supported by a square cast-iron column with capital.

The west wall has 11 bays with sill and head bands but no dentillation. The ground-floor openings are mostly blocked or altered.

Interior

Large-diameter iron columns at the north end of the adjacent weaving shed support the south wall. Construction is of steel beams supported by columns, with tiled concrete floors. The full-height lifting room has timber queen-post trusses off the beams and a roof lantern with wooden shutters. A small blocked fireplace with stone lintel survives on the ground floor.

1884 Reeling Room

This single-storey structure abuts the east side of the new reeling and winding block. It has hipped slate roofs (over-felted) and brick walls with stone dressings. The narrow south wall has detailing similar to the spinning block, comprising corner pilasters, cornice, bands and a moulded corbelled over-door. A two-storey tower has been added to the front. The east and west walls are abutted by other buildings. The north wall faces onto Pottery Road and has similar detailing across a five-window frontage. It also has decorative stone vents matching those of the spinning block's plinth.

Boiler Houses and Chimneys

Abutting the east side of the 1884 reeling room is the western boiler house, which is single-storey with a hipped slate roof of two pans (over-felted) and an altered frontage. The east wall is the exposed interior of the former west wall of the Old Mill boiler house. To the north stands a truncated octagonal chimney approximately 12 metres tall.

To the east stands the eastern half of the former boiler house of Old Mill, also single-storey with over-felted hipped slate roofs. It has an altered glazed-timber south wall and a plain brick east wall with some arched openings, including to a set-back narrower range to the north. In the north-west corner is the stump of a former circular chimney, which was originally central to this boiler house.

Subsidiary Features

The yard between the west end of the spinning block and the weaving shed is stone-setted. The 1886 weaving shed extension partially survives within the buildings of the Swan Meadow Industrial Estate, including its west and north walls and some of the roof structure and columns (both bearing seatings for power transmission fittings) of its north and west bays. The walls have a blue plinth, corner pilasters matching those of the spinning block and reeling room, recessed panels with cogged brick decoration, and arched rainwater outlets. The attached industrial estate building complex is excluded from the listing.