Primet Foundry

Primet Foundry

Former textile loom manufactory, foundry and textile mill, now foundry and kitchen furniture manufactory and showroom. Built around 1850, with additions made in 1861, 1880, 1895 and 1947. The complex occupies an irregular multi-component site bounded by Colne Water to the south, Greenfield Road to the north and Burnley Road to the east. The site comprises two main ranges, east and west, organised around two former courtyards and including a former engine house, boiler house, chimneys, former machine shop, smithy, mechanics shop, existing foundry, foundry extension, former weaving sheds, attached outbuildings and office.

The buildings are constructed of coursed rubble sandstone with ashlar dressings. Roofs are covered with Welsh slate, stone slate and 20th-century profiled sheet materials.

The east range contains a 4-storey engine house with a partially concealed semi-circular headed window to its east face. Attached to this is a truncated tapering square chimney of 1852, extended in 1895, alongside an octagonal chimney also of 1895. A brick and stone boiler house extends from the south-east corner of the site. Extending northwards is a 3-storey range of 12 bays, originally a single-storey machine shop of 1852, enlarged to a multi-storey building in 1880 and 1895 with stacked windows to all floors, now fitted with 20th-century multi-paned frames. The south elevation facing Colne Water comprises a 9-bay saw-tooth profiled roof range of 3 storeys above a tall basement, with glazed eastern slopes to the roofs. The parallel ranges extend east-west and link with the west foundry range. Both the engine house and this range feature tall ground floor openings, smaller first floor windows and taller upper floor openings. The north elevation displays a wide gable of the former machine shop to the left and three smaller gables to 2-storey ranges to the right. A former open yard to the rear was later converted to a single-storey smithy with side wall hearths on east and north walls, now open again with one hearth canopy and chimney surviving. A former office, added in 1895, has a wing extending westwards into the foundry yard.

Interior construction throughout features timber floors with substantial cross beams supported by slender cast-iron columns on the ground floor and basement, with integral support flanges to their heads and thicker columns to the later upper floors. The columns of the riverside range are exceptionally tall. One area contains storage racks for patterns, and another holds grindstone wheelpits similar to those found in grinding hulls in Sheffield, one of which retains an in-situ grinding wheel.

The west range comprises the foundry of 1861 and foundry extension of 1880, a weaving shed of 1895, and attached outbuildings to the east. A wide foundry building aligned north-south features a full-length roof louvre with slated slopes. The east side wall contains full-height openings, many now blocked, with a wide inserted double doorway to the centre. The west side wall, formerly similarly opened, is now enclosed by the 1880 extension aligned east-west. To the west of this, a multi-roofed north light weaving shed extends north-south to the Greenfield Road frontage. Single-storey and 2-storey outbuildings form a street frontage range extending eastwards to the entrance of the foundry yard.

The foundry interior features a 10-bay roof structure with massive tie beams providing an uninterrupted interior space. Queen post roof trusses with collars and angled struts support 5 purlins and the louvre superstructure. A former cupola to the north-west corner sits within a recess entered via a wide opening carried on flanged metal beams supported by cast-iron columns. The ceiling to the cupola area is carried on a web of metal beams, with two arched openings to the rear of the cupola recess beyond.

The loomworks, foundry and mill were established by J. Pilling and Sons. The business was founded in 1819 and relocated to Primet Bridge in the 1850s. The business reached the peak of its prosperity in the late 19th century but continued to manufacture looms until 1974. The foundry was operational at the time of inspection in June 1999. This near-complete and rare survival represents an important and often overlooked aspect of the textile industry—the manufacture of textile weaving and spinning machinery, forming an integrated site where looms were assembled and tested, timber components were machined and metal castings were produced and finished.