Grane Mill, Haslingden including boundary walls and north yard

This is a cotton weaving mill built in 1906 by the engineering company S.S. Stott and Co, with an extension added in 1913. The site has undergone late 20th-century alterations and partial demolition in the early 21st century.

Location and Setting

The mill stands at the north end of Laneside Road, positioned on an artificial plateau above the wooded valley of an unnamed brook. It is now surrounded by later housing to the north, east and south. The site is enclosed by stone walls and accessed at the northwest corner.

Materials

The buildings are constructed in roughly-coursed buff sandstone with some limewash render, beneath blue slate roofs. The chimney is of brick construction.

Site Layout

The complex comprises: - A single-storey warehouse to the south with an attached office block on its north front - A two-storey extension to the office block - To the east: a boiler house with economiser house and chimney behind, and an engine house

Warehouse

Exterior

Unusually for a warehouse, the building takes the form of a weaving shed, with multi-span saw-toothed north-light roofs concealed behind parapet walls. The rectangular structure consists of six by four bays. The walls are of roughly-coursed sandstone rubble with rock-faced quoins, partially obscured by the remains of grey whitewash render.

A large loading bay door in the west elevation has been inserted, featuring a modern steel lintel above a roller shutter door. The original loading entrance is at the eastern end of the north wall, with cast-iron lintels and rock-faced quoins to rolled-edge reveals. A former privy, later converted to a porch with monolithic sandstone jambs to a full-height door, stands against the north wall.

The valley gutters of the roof project through the east wall into a courtyard between the warehouse and power plant. Cast-iron downspouts are fitted into castings at the base of each gutter, leading into a subterranean drain. The south wall is a stone partition to the shaft alley, obscured externally by the former north wall of the weaving shed, which now forms the southern site boundary and is externally rendered.

Interior

The warehouse retains much of its original early 20th-century fabric. The walls are rubble sandstone above a three-foot (0.91 metre) brick plinth. The central north-south bays are defined by columns forming large squares measuring 22 feet (6.71 metres) on both axes, whilst the outer bays are half this width at 11 feet (3.36 metres) on their short axis.

The multi-span roof is constructed without trusses. The gentler-sloping southern pitches have simple timber rafters, internally sealed with lath and plaster. The steeper northern pitch comprises a cast-iron frame of T-section rafters bolted to the channel-section valley gutter. At their heads, the cast-iron rafters are jowled and bolted onto a horizontal iron rail below the timber ridge.

Panels forming the plain timber glazing bands are bolted onto the rear of the cast-iron rafters. Many original narrow six-light panels survive, though some have been replaced with panels containing four wider lights set within galvanised steel frames, or blocked with timber panelling.

The valley gutters (with planking below) are bolted via a splayed cast-iron foot in each bay onto the top of horizontal rolled steel I-section beams, which run across the shed. Many bear rolling stamps of the Dorman Long company of Middlesbrough. The beams span the bay divisions and are butt-jointed with slightly decorative plates and a bolt in either beam above five-and-a-half-inch diameter hollow cylindrical cast-iron columns. The end beams are socketed into the external walls on large sandstone pads.

The columns are simple in design, with head-plates clasping the beam above and flat bolting-plates on the eastern side for affixing hanger-plates. Castings for further line-shaft hangers are located on the soffit of the valley gutters at mid-bay points (some with timber plank covers). One column hanger survives in situ, comprising a plain casting to a semi-circular cup that grips a phosphorous bronze bearing around the line shaft.

The extant hanger carries a slender line-shaft with a drum adjacent to the south wall, supported by a larger open-web curved cast-iron hanger that clasps the bottom rail of the steel I-beam. This hanger carries the end of the shaft, which does not extend through the stone partition into the shaft alley but simply has a drum for drive. Cast-iron bearing boxes are fitted in the walls.

In the northern bay, the western three bays are partitioned from the rest by a full-height timber partition, probably original. A late partition divides the warehouse on the opposite side of the loading bay.

At the eastern end, a full-brick-thickness wall stands adjacent to the east wall of the office block, forming a six-foot (1.83 metre) wide passage inside the eastern stone wall. The passage has a doorway at its northern end—originally into an open courtyard, but latterly beneath an extension to the office block—and formed the primary workers' access into the weaving shed from the main yard on the north side. The passage also afforded access (via now-blocked doors) to a cloakroom on its western side, formed within the main warehouse. The southern part retains timber panelling at lower level, possibly original.

Unusually, the shaft alley has a glazing band in its north-light roof. The alley has bearing boxes within both walls.

Office Block

Exterior

The walls are random-coursed sandstone blockwork, rock-faced with ashlar dressings, beneath a pitched Welsh slate roof with central and right gable stacks. All windows are externally protected by wrought-iron railings.

The north wall comprises four alternating wide and narrow bays. The door is in a narrow bay to the left, with a rubbed sandstone lintel and threshold step, and rock-faced quoins with dressed margins. The original timber panelled door is in place below a shallow three-light flat fanlight.

The two wider bays have large vertical windows with lintels and mullions and projecting chamfered sills. The narrow central bay has a single vertical window of similar style. All are timber casements. On the right return, at the left is a smaller window, and in the centre of the gable is a square-section stone stack with simple oversailing course below the crowned pot. The gable also houses an external clock, which may have replaced an original. The return façade has rock-faced quoins with rolled margins reverting to angled margins three courses from the wall head, with an ogee-moulded transition.

On the left return of the front elevation, the lower quoins form the jamb of an open-fronted yard at ground floor level. At upper level, above a concrete sill beam in the north wall, a first-floor extension fills the space between the original office and the boiler house. Both exposed elevations are of random-coursed rock-faced sandstone.

The upper façade is fully glazed with a continuous rubbed sandstone lintel below the wall head, and projecting sandstone sill supporting rubbed jambs and two mullions to form two large horizontal windows and one smaller one to the left. The slender steel frames house casement windows comprising panes of differing sizes—nine in the larger windows and five in the smaller—in a broadly Art Deco style. The extension is carried on four longitudinal shuttered-concrete beams that carry transverse concrete rails.

The rear wall of the original office abuts the warehouse. Behind the first-floor extension, in the former courtyard between warehouse and boiler house, a further rear extension is possibly contemporary. This comprises a brick-built room of five-stretcher English Garden Wall bond construction with a monopitch roof from the boiler house to the warehouse parapet. It has a small rectangular first-floor window in the south elevation with sandstone lintel and bull-nosed brick sill, with a single-skin brick transverse wall below forming a ground-floor doorway at the eastern edge, again with sandstone lintel.

To the left, a full-brick-thickness plinth continues southwards against the access passage to the west from this point. A wall scar below the projecting ends of the valley gutters runs along the length of the wall, and a doorway into the passage has been inserted.

Interior

The doorway in the eastern bay of the original office leads to a short corridor (retaining its original sandstone flag floor) along the eastern edge of the office block. At its southern end it afforded access into the offices to the right, and also ahead into the warehouse.

The wall to the offices is glazed above a brick plinth, with four rows of panes and a hatch towards the northern end allowing workers to be paid from the clerk's office. A gate across the corridor placed immediately south of the hatch controlled access. The corridor ceiling is decorated with a plaster cornice to the lath-and-plaster ceiling.

The clerk's office retains a similar moulded cornice and high ceiling, with painted plaster walls, picture rail and a fireplace in the western brick wall. A doorway in the southwest corner affords access to a washroom and water closet in the narrow bay between the two offices, retaining decorative tiles to window-sill height.

The boardroom in the western bay represents a remarkable, almost complete survival of an Edwardian mill office. It retains timber panelling to the south, west and north walls to approximately seven feet (2.1 metres) height. The gable-end panelling houses a fireplace with a fire surround awaiting (as of 2016) refitting. The east wall incorporates a full-length bureau below cupboards to the height of a moulded timber picture rail. The ceiling has a decorative painted cornice to embossed wallpaper and a central plaster ceiling rose complete with original light fitting, converted to electrical supply from its original gas power. The central table is also apparently an original feature.

Boiler House

Exterior

Projecting into the northern yard slightly beyond the office to the west, the boiler house is of similar construction to the warehouse, with remains of grey limewash render adhering to the stonework. The elevations forward of the taller engine house have a coped parapet to a north-light multi-span roof in poor condition.

The north elevation has two tall wide doorways with rebated cast-iron lintels similar to those of the warehouse loading bay, with rock-faced quoins with pointed margins below a chamfered impost to each jamb. The quoins at either end are rolled to the height of the doorways but above this are rock-faced alternating quoins. The doorways contain modern roller shutter doors. The left return running to the engine house is blind. The rear elevation is obscured by the economiser house.

Interior

The boiler house retains two 30-foot Lancashire boilers with a charging platform on their north side. Both were built by Yates & Thom of Blackburn, with the first installed during initial construction in 1907, but the latter not inserted until 1912, despite the structure clearly being designed to house two boilers. Both survive intact, complete with steam and water pipes.

The front wall of the boilers retains a white glazed brick facing with a green-glazed course three courses from the top. The later boiler is fitted with an automatic stoker manufactured by James Hodgkinson of Salford and fitted in the 1950s. There is an inserted doorway in the west wall beneath the first-floor office extension. Patches of limewash adhere to the walls, suggesting this was the original wall finish.

At the rear of the boilers, vertical iron sheet dampers survive in situ, with counterweights slung from beams carried between the channel-section valley gutters of the roof. The roof is similar to the warehouse, although the narrow span did not require horizontal I-section beams or columns. To the rear the boiler house opens into the economiser house.

Economiser House

Exterior

To the rear of the boiler house stands a two-storey flat-roofed structure of sandstone rubble construction showing remains of whitewash render, but with a rubbed sandstone cornice to a cast-iron panelled water tank, and with rusticated rolled quoins to its south-western return similar to those of the office block and boiler house.

A short vertical window in the west wall, at the level of the top of the economiser, is internally clinker-blocked. A doorway with brick jambs has been inserted at the western end of the south wall. At its eastern end, a refractory-brick flue exits through the south wall below a cast-iron lintel and into the base of the chimney placed in the yard to the rear.

Interior

The structure houses a brick-built economiser built by Greens and Son in Wakefield in four-stretcher English Garden Wall bond. This appears intact, complete with heating tubes and dampers. It also retains a line shaft powering the dampers, originally powered by a rope from the rope-race, with a blocked bearing box in the adjacent wall suggesting it was latterly converted to electrical motor power supply.

Chimney

The round chimney is of engineering-brick construction in three-stretcher English Garden Wall bond, with a slight taper. At approximately 45 metres tall, it retains both its collar and oversailing crown, both of rolled terracotta, and has 24 iron bands above the roof height of the adjacent economiser house, with the name 'GRANE' painted towards the top on the northern side.

Engine House

Exterior

Adjacent to but set back from the boiler house, the principal north elevation has sandstone rubble showing through limewash render. A typical wide, tall central aperture with a segmental arched head is flanked by a pair of narrower flat-headed windows at first-floor level. All have projecting rock-faced jambs with dressed margins, with a projecting dropped key to the central arch and chamfered projecting keys forming part of the rubbed sandstone flat lintels.

The two flanking windows also have projecting dressed-sandstone sills and retain ten-light timber frames with most glass panes still intact. The central aperture has double panelled doors flanked by blind panels at engine-deck level, with a fanlight and large window above having Art Deco style glazing with narrow panes around the perimeter and small square panes to each corner.

At ground floor, a narrower central doorway affords access to the engine bed. This is recessed beneath a flagstone landing on an external flagstone quarter-turn stair, supported on wide dressed-sandstone block piers, and having an iron tube handrail with fluted cast-iron posts.

The left return elevation originally abutted the preparation block but now forms the eastern boundary of the site and is externally rendered. The rear elevation formerly abutted the weaving shed but now forms part of the southern boundary. It is rendered at ground floor with a doorway that afforded access from the weaving shed. The first floor and gable are limewash rendered with stone quoins and jambs to two rectangular first-floor twelve-pane fixed windows.

Interior

The engine hall has glazed brick elevations in five-stretcher English Garden Wall bond. A door in the west wall with bull-nosed reveals and a flush rubbed sandstone lintel affords access to the upper level of the adjacent boiler house.

The lower level of the walls are of chestnut-brown glazed brick to a moulded terracotta glazed dado, and incorporate a cream band three courses below the dado. Above, the walls are cream below a row of projecting chamfered sandstone corbels in the long walls. The wall is diminished in thickness by a full brick above, forming a pad for six horizontal I-section beams. The two courses immediately below are picked out in chestnut glazed brick, which continues around the gables.

The steel I-section beams would have been used during installation and maintenance of the engine and carry three further longitudinal beams which allowed for greater accuracy in positioning lifting gear in the form of block-and-tackle chains slung over the beams.

The pitched roof is lined internally with timber planks, with exposed rafters in the three central bays below the single purlin to each pitch, suggesting the roof had glazing bands. The purlins are cleated onto seven king-post trusses with angled braces placed from the jowled foot of each king post to the principal rafter below the purlin. The heads of the king posts are also jowled and clasp the slender ridge board. The king post is jointed to the principal rafters with bolts and a three-way plate, and all the tie-beam bolts are augmented with iron stirrups. The tie beams and principal rafters are carried on sandstone pads within the long walls.

The extant engine has been partially restored and is a 500 horsepower cross-compound horizontal Stott engine, built approximately 200 metres down Manchester Road at Laneside Foundry. It bears the nameplate 'Alice' and retains high and low pressure cylinders, piston rods and cranks to a 4.8-metre diameter timber-shuttered flywheel.

The western side of the flywheel incorporated a rim gear which could be powered by a very small cog on a barring or 'donkey' engine, used for firing the engine when cold or for slow running during maintenance. This has been fitted with an electric starter motor, presently allowing the engine to be turned prior to the proposed refurbishment of the steam power plant.

The flywheel has grooves for ropes, one of which still partially survives and drove a smaller grooved drum placed to the south on the secondary-motion shaft, which ran in both directions into the shaft alley. A rope from the second drum would also have run back towards the flywheel following the insertion of a rope-driven generator built by Metropolitan Vickers of Manchester and Sheffield, with the adjacent switchgear box also extant.

In the northwest corner of the engine hall, adjacent to the entrance, is a small timber-partitioned office/storeroom installed in the 1940s. There is a modern heating system in the engine hall consisting of radiators, pipes and a stove (these items are specifically excluded from the listing).

Boundary Walls and Yard

The west wall of the former preparation block runs northwards from the left-hand end of the engine house, now forming the eastern boundary to the site, and rendered externally. The courtyard elevation has a tall sandstone-coped parapet originally concealing the now-removed multi-span roof to the rear. It is of similar sandstone rubble construction to the warehouse but retains more of its limewash render.

At the left there is a loading-bay entrance similar to the original warehouse loading bay, recently stone-blocked but retaining a cast-iron lintel and an ornate light fitting and bracket above, probably original. To the right is a narrow vertical two-light window with flush sandstone lintel and projecting sandstone sill, and wrought-iron grille similar to that of the office windows.

Further right is a doorway (again recently blocked with stone) with rock-faced quoins with dressed margins and a rubbed-sandstone lintel, slightly above ground level and reached by a straight sandstone stair with an iron banister with fluted pilasters matching those of the engine house stair. This probably indicates that a raised floor surrounded the loading bay.

Returning forwards to the left is the northern boundary wall, comprising a high retaining wall to the gardens of houses to the north. It is of roughly-coursed sandstone block construction with cocks-and-hens copings and recessed pointing. This wall is slightly battered. Towards the original wide gated entrance across the north-western angle of the site there is a rendered plinth against its lower level.

The entrance has one surviving monolithic rock-faced gatepost with pointed dressed margins, missing a finial, and a replacement gate (the replacement gate is specifically excluded from the listing). The wall returns along Laneside Road at approximately six feet high, but after a short length the coping changes to flat sandstone flags. Further on the wall steps down and continues to the south to form part of the western boundary of the housing development, with a very short return to the east, with rock-faced quoins with dressed margins on the angle.

The yard to the north of the buildings retains its original sandstone setts, which extend beyond the gateway to the edge of the highway. The western yard has a modern concrete surface finish and is excluded from the listing.