Shaw Lodge Mill Office Building

Shaw Lodge Mill Office Building

An office of 1865, possibly designed by Charles Barry, built in coursed dressed gritstone with ashlar dressings. The building comprises two storeys with a basement and cellar, beneath a hipped slate roof.

The front elevation displays five first-floor 1-over-1 vertical sash windows positioned above a string course. A central entrance features solid panelled double doors with a rectangular plain overlight, set within an architrave of pilasters with consoles supporting the cornice. A broad flight of shallow steps, narrowing at the top, leads to the entrance and is flanked by a low stone wall. To either side stand two 1-over-1 windows with eared architraves, segmental arches and oversailing cornices. The eaves are dentilated, and wrought iron railings front the building. The left and right returns each contain three windows on both floors in the same style as those on the front. The rear elevation shows no ground-floor windows due to a rise in ground level; instead there is an off-centre Venetian stair window with two windows to its left and one to its right. An attached single-storey garage stands to the right, rebuilt in 1936 from the original stables in gritstone with a corrugated iron M-shaped roof.

The interior begins with a lobby leading to inner glazed double doors and an entrance hall with an encaustic tiled floor and coffered ceiling featuring decorative plaster cornices and ceiling roses. Fluted pillars and pilasters support 6-panelled doors with raised cornices. A rear imperial staircase with wrought iron balusters and polished wood handrail provides access to the upper floors, with a window overlooking the rear of the building. To the left lie three almost identical offices, each with ornate plaster ceiling roses, plaster-panelled walls and dark marble fireplaces with semi-circular arched surrounds (grates lost). All windows retain original shutters. The basement and cellar are accessed via a door beneath the stairs. To the right, a reception office with coffered ceiling and ceiling rose connects to a rear room containing a large safe with outer and inner doors. The inner doors are panelled wood veneer over metal, fitted with ornate brass handles and key plates, with shelves and small safes within.

The first-floor landing features pilasters and pillars with dentilled cornices and a ceiling rose. A tall central boardroom door with raised cornice opens to the front; the boardroom contains wood-veneer panelled walls, fitted furniture and a fire surround, probably not original. A large open office to the left displays a coffered ceiling, ceiling roses, pilasters and similar ornamental plasterwork, whilst offices to the right have plainer fittings.

The building forms part of Shaw Lodge Mill, a worsted spinning and weaving complex established by John Holdsworth in the 1820s. The firm was founded in 1822 by John Holdsworth, whose family were already woollen textile manufacturers and merchants in Shibden and Halifax. The company specialised in worsted cloth produced by hand-loom weavers, but mechanisation prompted John Holdsworth to establish his first spinning mill in 1822. By 1825 he was purchasing land at Shaw Lodge, with his first mill (the extant No 1 Mill) dated to 1830. The first power-loom weaving shed followed in 1844, accompanied by further spinning mills and an extension to the weaving shed in 1852. No 2 Mill, dated between 1831 and 1839, stood south of the present buildings at right angles to them, extending eastward to the Hebble Brook. No 3 Mill, dated 1850 in a 1925 plan, though earlier records call it a warehouse, was certainly in existence by 1855, positioned north of and adjoining No 1 Mill.

By 1839 the mills were steam powered, with separate engines for each of the two mills. In 1855 a separate engine house, boiler house and chimney were constructed on the eastern side of the site, with underground power connections to the mills. By this date the firm had invested in Jacquard looms and in 1851 won a medal at the Great Exhibition for their worsted cloths. Family branches operated in Bradford and London, and John Holdsworth maintained a house, Shaw Lodge, close to the western boundary of the site, now demolished.

Continued prosperity led to the construction of a seven-storey warehouse north of No 3 Mill in 1862, and this separate office block with adjoining stable in 1865. A workshop and shed at the north end of the site, and a tower and timekeepers office at the northern end of the weaving sheds were added in 1876. Subsequently, alterations have included the loss of No 2 Mill and the southern end of No 1 Mill, reconstruction of the stables, extensions to the engine house and boiler house, and reroofing of most of the weaving sheds and mills. The firm continued to operate until 2006, surviving the broader decline of woollen manufacturing in the country by specialising in the production of moquette for the bus and coach trade. The site was due to be redeveloped.