Canal Mill

Canal Mill

A cotton spinning mill built in 1855 with subsequent alterations, designed by millwrights Knight and Wood for Richard Smethurst and Co. Constructed in red brick and buff sandstone, the mill stands as a significant landmark west of the Lancaster Canal at Botany Bay, aligned roughly north-south and now facing the M61 motorway.

The building measures 20 bays by 7 bays and rises five storeys. An original single-storey office and strong room is expressed at the north end. The north-west corner features a tower, probably for latrines.

The exterior is built of red brick laid to English Garden Wall bond with a punched stone plinth (partially obscured at the south end by raised ground levels), ground-floor sill band and pilasters with stepped channels to the angles and elsewhere. The windows are all replacements, mostly in metal, though most retain original stone wedge lintels and stone sills, with some concrete replacements.

The west-facing front has a slender tower clasping the left corner and contains 19 windows. The entrance is in the third bay from the right, flanked by channelled pilasters, with windows stacked above a stone Classical door surround with pilasters, architrave and entablature. The latrine tower is an enlarged version of the right-hand corner pilaster, with recessed faces between the angle brickwork and slit windows (now boarded). The angles have later metal turrets with pointed roofs. The upper storey has a concrete lintel ring-beam and parapet with concrete coping, and the brick above sill level differs to the north of the entrance bay. Above the entrance bay sits a water-tank podium, incorporating elements of an original roof turret and topped by an ogee dome.

The north wall is similar in treatment, with the tower partially obscuring the right-hand angle pilaster, and displays seven windows per floor. A central single-storey projecting office has channelled corner pilasters and stone entablature with one window per side. Partial remains of former modern extensions survive to the left. The upper floor has renewed brickwork above the sills.

The east wall contains 20 windows per floor, with only the parapet renewed. Between bays 4 and 5 is a single channelled pilaster, interrupted at the second floor by a bearing box and terminating above the ground floor, where the boiler house was originally attached. The left-hand corner pilaster also terminates above the ground floor, which is mostly painted. Bays 1 to 3 display blind brickwork, with a blocked arched opening between bays 1 and 2 from the former boiler house into the spinning block. Bay 4 has deep-coursed stone to the ground floor and a bearing box below the pilaster. Bays 5, 6, 7 and 9 contain doorways formed by extended windows. Bays 10 and 11 have an inserted shopfront under a steel joist. Bay 8 has a large bearing box with massive stone sill and lintel. The nine right-hand bays have remnants of former modern extensions and blocked ground-floor windows, with inserted doorways in bays 12, 18 and 19. At the first floor, bays 1 to 3 have original blind windows, now infilled at the lower level. Bays 1 and 2 of the second floor also have original blind windows. Bay 12 has a blocked bearing box at the third floor, matching the mapped location of a former rope race.

The south wall is similar to the north wall but has channelled pilasters flanking the outer bays as well as the corner pilasters. It is currently partially obscured by raised temporary buildings housing former offices, attached at the first and second floor.

The interior is divided by a cross wall to the north of the entrance. To the south of this, the construction comprises brick jack arches supported by axial cast-iron beams and columns (to the ground, first and second floor ceilings, spanning only the central five bays to the second floor). To the north, the carding and spinning floors are of timber cross-beams and cast-iron columns, which hold the beams via a crush box at the column head. These remain largely visible, though in some areas the ceilings have been boarded or the beams boxed in. To the top floor, the columns support valley gutters (axial to the spinning floor, transverse to the south end), and the original roof structure (with cast-iron v-shaped gutters) and lath-and-plaster ceiling survive. The columns are original, several bearing a decorative founder's mark up the face consisting of a lozenge at each end with the words "KNIGHT & WOOD. BOLTON. 1855". Original wide floorboards (approximately 7 inches) also survive.

Each floor's cross wall has a central bearing box in a stone surround; that to the ground floor is more elaborate and retains the broken ends of springing for projections running to the north. The central bay to the south end of the ground floor, where the engine was probably originally mounted, has no jack arch but later concrete beam flooring which cuts across the bearing box. A transverse iron beam forming part of the structure supporting the engine is thought to remain in situ. Power transmission evidence includes a column with in-situ line-shaft hanger and pillow bearing in the south end of the ground floor, and another in the north-east corner retaining a bolting plate for a line-shaft hanger. To the top floor, the columns of the central aisle are linked by cast-iron beams all supported by swan-neck corbels where they fix to the columns. These beams have curved drops beyond the fixings to lower the level of the tie and allow line shafting to pass over them, and retain fixings for pillow bearings to support the shaft. The four southernmost examples drop less at the ends but also have another drop in the centre; these ties are more decorative, with lozenge-shaped lightening holes and more embellishment of the central bearing support. Five at the north end have linear lightening holes and simpler bearing supports, while the remaining two have a solid web and plain bearing supports but more graceful curves to the ends.

The columns connected by one of these latter ties are also tied to the outer columns by plain steel beams supported by shoes rather than corbels. In the south end, the central two columns are tied to the south wall by fish-bellied cast-iron beams with collars that clasp the column. An original stone winder stair survives on the west side of the entrance bay, with dressed rounded soffits to the stairs and stone flag floors. The roof turret is altered (and includes an added octagonal ogee dome) but retains elements of the original, including a stone door surround and entablature, parapet stones, timber gable wall-plates and a small section of surviving roof now internal. The stair retains a gauge for a water tank and some stone door surrounds and substantial timber doors. Inserted historic lifts also survive. The interior of the original office was not accessible, but the stone door surround survives with run-out chamfers and pintels for a security gate.

Modern partitions divide parts of some floors. A wooden stair has been inserted in the centre of the spinning floors between the second and third floors. A modern metal stair has also been inserted in the north-west corner, denying access to the former latrine tower. Modern steelwork has been inserted in the south-east corner of the third floor. The roof coverings have been replaced in corrugated steel.