Old Lane Mill Rawson's Mill

Old Lane Mill, also known as Rawson's Mill, is a worsted mill built between 1825 and 1828 for James Ackroyd, and later acquired by the Rawson family in 1836. The building is constructed of hammer-dressed stone with ashlar dressings and a corrugated asbestos roof. It has a largely L-shaped plan and stands six storeys high plus an attic. There are 15 windows on the front and five on the projecting wing to the right.

The mill is designed in a classical style. The south front features a tall, segment-headed window within a rusticated ashlar surround, presumably for the engine house. To the right are nine windows distributed across three floors, with a further eleven windows above them on three more floors. A projecting office and stair wing is positioned to the right, and includes a large loading entrance also framed by rusticated ashlar, flanked by single blocked windows. Above this entrance are four windows on each of the five floors. This wing is topped with a plain pediment incorporating a circular clock face. The east front has two windows per floor to the left, and a gabled front containing five windows to the right, with a central row of seven loading doors, and two windows on either side. The top floor of the gable has single windows on either side. The north front exhibits seven windows either side of a projecting, canted latrine tower.

The mill’s interior features “fire proof” construction, with two rows of circular iron columns supporting cast iron beams of a parabolic web, parallel flange inverted “T” section design. These beams support shallow brick arches and stone-flagged floors. The roof is supported by fourteen cast iron, arched trusses, each made up of four sections bolted together. These trusses hold cast iron purlins and common rafters, which are racked to support original wooden laths. The engine house, situated at the west end, has a panelled window reveal and a decorative plaster ceiling. A large semicircular recess formerly housed the main flywheel. The mill is listed due to its significance as the oldest and largest surviving example of a multi-storey, steam-powered, iron-framed textile mill in Halifax and is likely the best-preserved example from that date in Yorkshire.