Ainscough'S Mill

Ainscough's Mill is a former steam-powered corn mill at Burscough on Mill Lane, strategically positioned between the Leeds-Liverpool canal and the Liverpool to Preston railway line. Built around 1858 by Hugh Ainscough on the site of a former windmill, it was extended in 1885 and 1894 by the engineers Hind and Lumb, with further additions and alterations made in the late 20th century. The building was empty at the time of inspection in October 1998.

The mill is constructed of red brick with ashlar sandstone dressings and slate roof coverings. It follows an irregular L-plan comprising three main elements: a north-east range facing the canal, a south-east range facing the railway, and a power unit containing the boiler house, engine house and chimney.

The north-east range is a triple-gabled structure of six storeys with an attic floor, extending six bays in length. The central gable is wide and features four windows per floor, with a narrower gable to the left containing three windows per floor and another to the right with two windows per floor. A former hoist canopy was positioned between the left and right sections. A continuous canopy running the full length of the frontage provides covered unloading facilities from the adjacent canal wharf. Behind the power unit stands a five-storey wing with a narrow gabled ridge ventilator extending the building's full length; this has been clad with 20th-century corrugated sheeting, and its three-windowed gable now has many blocked openings.

The power unit forms an L-shaped complex on the north-west side of the north-east range. A tall tapering circular chimney with a square plinth rises between an extended and altered boiler house and a two-storey engine house to the south-west. The engine house features decorative brickwork to its eaves and verges, with its south-west gable displaying windows flanking a central double doorway on each storey; cast iron lintels frame the door openings.

The south-east range includes a tall square water tower on its north-west side, which is five storeys in height and was extended or rebuilt with a further four storeys. The tower has shallow corner pilasters and a plain parapet, with semi-circular headed windows to each floor. A wide basket-arched opening at ground level, set within rock-faced sandstone dressing, provides access to the main mill body. To the left of the tower, a six-storey range links with the north-east range. To the right, wide gables extend south-westwards with blocked openings on each side. A 20th-century door has been inserted into the base of the left-hand gable, and 20th-century extensions to the south-west end are not considered of special interest.

Internally, the floors are boarded and supported on deep timber joists and spine beams carried on cast-iron columns with splayed and bracketed heads. Wide-span composite roof trusses carry multiple purlins, with underboarded roof spars throughout. The mill contained 20th-century milling and cleaning machinery, which was being removed at the time of inspection.

The mill was strategically located to transport and process imported wheat from the port of Liverpool, taking advantage of its proximity to both the Leeds-Liverpool canal and the railway network connecting to Lancashire's coalfield. It represents a substantial and near-complete example of a purpose-built steam-powered flour mill, demonstrating the scale and detailing typical of mid to late 19th-century industrial milling complexes of this period.