F Mill And F Mill Annex

F Mill and F Mill Annex

F Mill and F Mill Annex are industrial buildings at Dean Clough, Halifax, forming part of the Crossley family's carpet manufacturing complex. F Mill was completed in 1858 and designed by Roger Ives, a Halifax architect who worked extensively for the Crossley company from the 1850s onwards. F Mill Annex comprises several structures of different dates, with the earliest section dating to 1855.

F Mill is aligned approximately east-west, backing onto Old Lane to the north and overlooking an area formerly occupied by weaving sheds to the south. The eastern end abuts B Mill. A bend in Old Lane follows the north side of F Mill, giving it a waisted profile. Rising ground to the north and west means that six storeys on the south elevation reduce to two at the north-west corner. The building is constructed of hammer-dressed gritstone with ashlar dressings. A modillion cornice and raised parapet with pilaster strips runs around the entire building. The pitched roof is an early 21st century metal replacement.

The south elevation displays six storeys with 18 window bays on either side of a central projecting toilet block that rises above the parapet. Each bay contains an off-centre line of taking-in doors, now windows. The toilet tower has projecting string courses at each floor and paired round-arch windows on each side. The modillion cornice is broken on each face, with a pair of oeil de boeuf windows beneath a large round arch above the cornice line at the front. Above the keystone of this arch is a tablet engraved "A.D.1858", and above again the cornice supports a low parapet. To the left of the tower are two inserted entrances and an external glass and steel lift tower. Inserted steel balconies extend from the lift tower to the toilet tower on alternate floors. A double-height, two-bay opening to the left of the lift is now enclosed as entrances and windows. At the left end of the building is a double-height, two-bay round-arched opening with rusticated ashlar dressings, now partially enclosed and partly behind the end of F Mill Annex. Twelve bays to the right of the toilet tower is a similar round-arched opening with original double doors.

The north elevation onto Old Lane has 38 window bays in total: 16 to the east of the bend in the rear wall and 22 to the west. There is a line of taking-in doors, now windows, three bays west of the bend. There are 24 blocked openings from the east at basement level, reducing in size as ground rises to the west, beyond which there are only two floors of windows. The final four ground floor window bays at the west end are blocked. The east end abuts B Mill with a gable end but projects further north, with two windows at first floor and blocked openings below. At the west end the cornice and parapet continue, with a projecting corner pier at the north-west corner. Altered and blocked openings span nine bays, and a drop in ground level from north to south is obscured by neighbouring buildings including F Annex.

The interior of F Mill has been converted to office use and retains cast-iron columns and floor beams supporting brick arch floors, with two rows of columns increasing to three in the widest part of the building to the west.

F Mill Annex comprises several structures of different phases, all constructed in gritstone. Two main elements are visible from the south. To the right (east) is a nine-window, six-storey building with a late 20th century north-light roof. To the left (west) is a seven-window, five-storey building with a slate hipped roof. The eastern building has a later single-storey, flat-roofed extension projecting from the right-hand five bays with a central entrance. The east-side elevation has a row of taking-in doors with steel lintels, now windows with some altered, and an altered opening to the ground floor. A narrow gap between the Annex and F Mill, where F Mill extends behind the Annex, is bridged at fifth-floor level. The ground floor of the western building features a series of former ground-floor entrances, now altered to form windows. To the north and west the buildings are abutted by later constructions. Internally, F Mill Annex has been converted to form a hotel.

History

John Crossley leased a water-powered mill at Dean Clough from the Waterhouse family in 1822, though 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 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 for the manufacture of carpets, for which they became famous.

F Mill was completed in 1858 and marked a return in the site's development to the western end of the valley. Roger Ives, a Halifax architect who began designing for Dean Clough in the 1850s, designed the building. His first building for the company was D Mill, followed by E Mill. Like the earlier A and B Mills to which it was attached, F Mill was excavated out of the valley side, overlooking the weaving sheds built over the former mill dam to the south. Its earlier power source is uncertain, but by 1900 it was powered by an engine housed in the north-eastern corner of the Gripper Shed, which replaced an earlier weaving shed.

To the west of F Mill is a group of attached buildings known as F Mill Annex. The section immediately to the west of F Mill predates it, being in existence by 1855 and serving as a boiler house attached to the weaving shed to the south, with upper floors used for warehousing. The section further west dates to later in the 19th century and was also a warehouse. Both were originally lower, with extra storeys added after a fire in 1904. A small section to the rear of the warehouse is also late 19th century, while to the rear of the former boiler house a former yard area was enclosed probably in the early 20th century. The former boiler house and the building to the rear were re-roofed in the late 20th century.

Further mills, sheds and other associated buildings were constructed throughout the 19th century, with development continuing in the 20th century until 1982 when final carpet production ceased following a gradual run-down after the merger of John Crossley & Sons with Carpet Trade Holdings and the Carpet Trades Manufacturing Company of Kidderminster. Both F Mill and F Mill Annex have been converted to other uses as offices and a hotel.