Shaw Lodge Mill Warehouse And Mills

Shaw Lodge Mill Warehouse and Mills is a group of warehouse and two spinning mills for worsted production, located on Shaw Lane in Halifax.

The warehouse dates to 1862 and is constructed in coursed dressed gritstone with ashlar dressings. Its irregular floor plan accommodates the narrow, sloping site with roads on either side. The building rises 5 storeys above ground at its north-west end and 6 storeys plus basement at the south end, with a parapet round roof with dentilation at its base.

The west face has an altered vehicle entrance to the right and a blocked window to the left, with two 2-over-4 wood-framed windows on each of the remaining four floors. The south-west face contains ten 2-over-4 windows, loading doors, and seven more windows, with an additional row of five windows to the left and six to the right of the loading doors at new ground level and a personal door at the right-hand end. A hoist is positioned over the loading doors. The north face has fourteen windows with a central block of five projecting forward, three windows at the north-east corner, and five on the east face. An external metal fire escape stair runs up from the west end of the north face.

At the south-east corner stands a privy block in Italianate style, which breaks forward to the east and rises one storey above the rest with a pyramidal slate roof. It features ashlar stonework, round-arched windows—four to each floor—separated by pilasters and divided by projecting string courses, with a blocked round-arched entrance on the ground floor where the ashlar is rock-faced.

The interior comprises a series of open sheds with iron supporting columns, some with additional later supports, extending into an additional basement floor to the south. The top floor is open to the roof structure with original A-frame wooden trusses. Internal doors link the warehouse to adjoining mill buildings.

Mill No. 1 dates to 1830 and Mill No. 3 to 1850. Both are constructed in coursed dressed gritstone with ashlar dressings and have 20th-century replacement metal sheet roofs.

Mill No. 1 has 2-over-4 or 1-over-4 wood-framed windows on two storeys, with fourteen windows on the front west-facing elevation plus a single window at the southern end in a forward-projecting block. The entrance is at the north end. An extra, lower storey at the southern end accommodates the drop in ground level. The southern end has several blocked windows at different levels, and part of its upper gable end is rebuilt in brick. The rear east-facing elevation displays fourteen windows over five storeys plus one bay in a tower rising above the roof level, with some windows blocked at ground and first-floor level.

Mill No. 3 features a forward-projecting block of three windows at the southern end of the west elevation, with an entrance on the south side. Continuing north are seven windows over three storeys, a central gabled block breaking forward with five windows and an extra storey in the gable with wider windows in the centre (probably adapted from loading doors), then a further seven windows. The three northernmost bays are ashlar-faced at ground-floor level, with blind segmental arches above the central window and the entrance to the north.

The mill interiors comprise mainly open sheds with free-standing machinery, ceilings supported by iron columns. Those in Mill No. 1 are individually stamped with the manufacturer's name and date 'BATES 1830'. Fireproof vaulted construction supports the ceilings. Some original floors and staircases remain, though some are later insertions. Office spaces have been inserted at the junctions of the component buildings.

The firm of John Holdsworth & Company was founded in 1822 by John Holdsworth, whose family were already established woollen textile manufacturers and merchants in Shibden and then Halifax. The company specialised in worsted cloth, initially produced by hand-loom weavers. Developments in mechanised spinning led John Holdsworth in 1822 to establish his first spinning mill as part of a growing number of worsted spinning mills in Halifax. The location of this first mill is uncertain, but by 1825 he was purchasing land at Shaw Lodge, with the first mill on the site dating to 1830—the extant Mill No. 1.

Further industry developments led to gradual mechanisation of the weaving process. A power-loom weaving shed was begun at Shaw Lodge in 1844, accompanied by further spinning mills and, in 1852, by an extension to the weaving shed. Mill No. 2, dated between 1831 and 1839, stood to the south of the present buildings at right angles to them, leading eastwards to Hebble Brook. Mill No. 3, dated 1850 on a 1925 plan, was built as such, though earlier plans call it a warehouse; it was certainly in existence by 1855, standing to the north of and adjoining Mill No. 1.

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

Continued prosperity led to construction of the seven-storey warehouse to the north of Mill No. 3 in 1862, and a 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.

Subsequent alterations have included the loss of Mill No. 2 and the southern end of Mill No. 1, 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 operations until 2006, having survived the demise of most woollen manufacturing in the country, specialising in moquette production for the bus and coach trade. The site was due for redevelopment.

The warehouse and mills are of national importance as representatives of the Yorkshire textile industry. The rare dated cast-iron columns confirm the early date of the mills. The group forms an essential component of a largely intact complex containing examples of a full range of buildings associated with 19th-century worsted production. The completeness of the site makes it of high importance in the history of this nationally significant industry.