Former Moss Mill

The former Moss Mill is a cotton spinning mill built around 1796, now housing various workshops and a gymnasium. It features red brick in English garden wall bond with sandstone dressings, though much of it is now rendered, and has a slate roof. The building has a shallow rectangular plan facing south and stands five storeys tall. Originally designed with a window arrangement of 4:3:4, the fenestration has been altered and is now irregular. The centre of the façade projects forward and has raised rusticated quoins that remain exposed. The ground floor contains various inserted doorways, with a 20th-century addition covering the left end. The second, third, and fourth floors each have four square windows on the left, while the centre and right sections have a more irregular arrangement, with some windows altered or blocked.

At the rear, the eastern portion and the pedimented centre feature square windows with raised sills and wedge lintels, some of which are blocked or blind, but are generally more regular than those at the front. The centre has three windows on each floor, along with a round-headed window at the top floor that rises into the pediment. The interior has not been inspected but is believed to have undergone alterations. Historically, this mill was one of the first built by John Horrocks and was a key part of a small industrial community he established in the area, which included a three-storey block of housing for handloom weavers that has since been demolished. It is now recognized as the oldest surviving spinning mill in the town and retains its identifiable Georgian pedimented form, characteristic of the earliest textile mills.