G And K Mills And Associated Range

This group comprises a spinning mill (G Mill), a warehouse (K Mill), and subsidiary former stores, stables and workshops, some designed by Roger Ives, all built for Crossley and Sons. The buildings are dated 1867 and 1891, with later additions and alterations.

The main buildings are constructed in hammer-dressed stone with ashlar dressings, while the associated buildings are in coursed dressed rubble.

Layout

The buildings occupy a triangular plot formed by Corporation Road, Dean Clough Road and Stannery Steps to the east. G Mill is aligned north-south at the eastern end, with K Mill extending north-west from the southern corner of G Mill, and the stable block running north from the north-west corner of K Mill, forming a three-sided courtyard. To the west of this courtyard is a further triangular courtyard formed by the stable block to the east, the former lime store to the west, and later buildings to the north.

G Mill

G Mill has nine storeys, reduced to five at the south (Corporation Street) end where the ground is higher. The building is angled on the southern end to accommodate the line of Corporation Street, making it shorter on the west side than on the east. The east side has 19 windows and it is eight windows deep, with an additional line of blank windows at the canted south-east corner.

On the west side there is a single-storey extension at the north end, possibly a former porter's lodge, with a pyramidal roof and a stone stack on the west side. It has a single window and an entrance on the north side, a single window to the west, and two windows to the south overlooking the main mill entrance.

Immediately to the south is the main entrance to G Mill with an arched doorway including a keystone supporting a cornice; a ramped approach with a stone side wall is a later addition. From the north, there are three windows, then an added external lift tower in glass, four windows, a lavatory tower and six windows. There is a modillion cornice and parapet articulated by pilaster strips which continues round the lavatory tower. The tower has three small round-headed windows on each floor. Below the modillion cornice which continues round the tower are three bullseye openings to the front, two to each side. Above is a panel with the date A.D. 1867, and a further stage with two blind round-arched openings to each face. Brackets above each keystone support a metal water tank.

The glazing has been renewed and there is a small external entrance porch at the south-east corner added in the 21st century. The north and south elevations have eight windows and the north elevation has three covered footbridges over Dean Clough Road linking to D Mill at different levels.

Internally, G Mill has been converted to offices and internal partitions have been created on most floors. Cast-iron columns survive, supporting fire-proof brick arched ceilings. The top floor is open and retains two rows of columns with evidence of line shafting and a north light roof. The interior of the toilet tower is vacant.

K Mill

K Mill has a hipped slate roof. It has five storeys to the north-east, reduced to one to the south-west onto Corporation Street owing to the rise in ground level. The north-east elevation is eight windows wide with taking-in doors, converted to windows, in the fifth bay from the left, and a plain door at ground level. To the left is an entrance door with a frieze bearing the date of 1891, and a cornice. The three ground floor bays to the right of the taking-in doors are occupied by a vehicle entrance with plain frieze and cornice. There is a modillion cornice at roof level and a small pediment above the taking-in doors. The modillion cornice continues round to the south-west elevation where there is an inserted single wide entrance towards the right-hand end.

Internally, K Mill is converted to offices with a stairwell inserted into the area behind the former taking-in doors. Timber work has been replaced in the roof, but brick lining to the inner walls survives.

Associated Buildings

The stable block is a two-storey range with a hipped slate roof. The east elevation, facing G Mill, has seven blocked first-floor windows and altered ground floor windows and entrances, now workshops. A buttress at the north end is the remains of a house formerly extending into the yard. There are four skylights in the roof. The west elevation has two loading doors in half gables at first-floor level, and recessed altered openings on the ground floor. Attached to the north end and extending along the south side of Dean Clough Road is a single-storey range of later date with a pitched roof.

To the south of the yard is a further two-storey range with a pent roof abutting the embankment wall of Corporation Street. It has three vehicle entrances to the left and three windows to the right, with one first-floor window, on its north elevation, and three skylights in the slate roof. It abuts a triangular stone building at the western end of the yard, the former lime store. It has a north lights roof with a parapet, and has two storeys on the north side, one to the south. The north elevation has an arched double doorway to the left end, and six round-arched windows on the ground floor, seven on the first floor. On the north elevation there are two doorways and no windows. The western yard is enclosed to the north and south by a stone wall.

Train tracks are embedded in the setts of the eastern courtyard, entering from Dean Clough Road with branches to G Mill and K Mill extending from a turntable in the centre of the yard.

Historical Context

John Crossley leased a water-powered mill at Dean Clough from the Waterhouse family in 1822, but he and his brothers had been carrying out worsted spinning and dyeing there since 1802. The mill stood at the eastern end of a mill dam formed from a leat from the Hebble Brook which runs to the south of the site. From 1841 onwards the Crossley family began building a series of engine-powered spinning mills and weaving sheds at Dean Clough, used in the manufacture of carpets for which they became famous.

G Mill was one of the later spinning mills constructed on the site, and was built on a plot of land formerly occupied by a foundry and various other buildings. The land was bought by the Crossleys in the 1860s and cleared of its existing buildings. At the western end of the triangular plot a lime store was built and G Mill, designed by Roger Ives, was opened in 1867. In 1874 a goods siding off the main railway line was opened to run through the Dean Clough site, and this terminated in a turntable immediately to the west of G Mill. K Mill was built as a warehouse in 1891 as part of the reorganisation of internal goods movements as a result of the railway. The other buildings on the site were in existence by 1900 and included a cartwright's shed, gas engine shed, blacksmith's shed and a house. The house has since been demolished and other sheds along the south side of Dean Clough have been built, forming a courtyard at the western end of the site.

Continuing development in the 20th century finally ended in 1982 when final carpet production ceased after a gradual run-down following the merger of John Crossley & Sons with Carpet Trade Holdings and the Carpet Trades Manufacturing Company of Kidderminster.

G and K Mills were listed in 1982. G Mill has been converted to offices, and K Mill is undergoing conversion.