The Moorings And Sowerby Marine Limited

Canal warehouses, dating probably to 1770 and built for the Calder and Hebble Navigation Company, are now used as a restaurant, bar, and commercial premises. The building is constructed of coursed squared stone with a stone slate roof, and its plan is L-shaped. It stands three storeys high, with 9 x 3 bays and a wing to the rear right. The west front has bays 3 and 9 featuring two-storey wagon arches, round-headed with punch-dressed quoins and voussoirs aligned to the courses. The angles of the bay-3 archway are rounded, and the bay-7 archway is partly infilled, with a doorway to each floor. Above each archway is a double board loading door with impost and base blocks, stone cills and lintels. A similar, narrower doorway is located on the second floor of bay 5. Windows have stone lintels, projecting cills, and small-pane glazing dating to the 1980s. Plain gutter brackets are present. The roof is hipped on the left side. The rear of the building, fronting the basin, features a three-bay wing projecting on the left, and six right-hand bays under two gables. The main range's third bay from the right has an opposing wagon archway. Windows are visible above, and loading doors are located on each floor of the flanking bays. The windows are similar to those on the front. On the first floor at the right corner, there is the base of a support for a former canopy. The rear wing has a double loading door on each floor (two upper ones partially blocked), flanked by windows. Remains of a hoist can be seen rising through the ridge. The right return of the wing, onto the basin, has five bays, with the central bay containing loading doors. The left return of the main range has loading doors in the central bay, flanked by windows. The right return, encompassing both the main range and wing, has eight bays, with loading doors in bay 6. Inside, slender cast-iron columns support large scantling cross-beams. Windows have chamfered reveals. The roof structure comprises fishbone king post trusses with additional vertical and diagonal members. Tenders were sought to build the first warehouse on the basin in 1770, which is likely to be the present No. 1 warehouse.