Hollins Mill

Hollins Mill, Todmorden

Integrated cotton spinning and weaving mill, now in mixed uses. Built 1856–58 by Abraham, William and Peter Ormerod, manufacturers producing raw cotton through to woven fabric for the finisher. Extended by 1890.

The mill is constructed of coursed squared gritstone with ashlar surrounds to openings, typical of the Calder Valley. Roofs are of slate and glazed tiles, variously hipped, gabled and fitted with north lights.

The site occupies the junction of Hollins Road and Rochdale Road at the Rochdale Canal. A culverted stream, Walsden Water, runs along the south-west side following the line of Rochdale Road.

The four-storey spinning mill forms the centrepiece: eighteen bays long with a triple-span roof and stone gutter brackets. A projecting stair tower with ramped parapet and clock marks the centre of the front elevation; wide inserted entrances flank this on either side. A privy tower serving each floor projects from the rear centre. Doors and windows have ashlar surrounds with interrupted jambs and continuous sill bands; first-floor windows are now blocked with breeze blocks behind fenestration. A cast-iron plate set into the south-east end wall indicates the position of a line shaft to the western shed.

Interior: two rows of cast-iron columns with D-sectioned bolting heads, lugs and ribbed top plates, with curved compression plates set between the columns on each floor and timber cross beams. Evidence for power transmission from the beam engine house includes the ashlar foundation of the upright shaft at ground floor and mountings to support it on upper floors, aligned with the north row of columns. A cast-iron hangar at first floor may have transferred drive to the second row of columns. Ashlar blocks high on the south-east end wall mark the positions of projecting supports that carried a line shaft on the weaving shed wall to power countershafts along the column rows. The spinning mill contained thirty thousand spindles.

The single-storey weaving shed, twenty-five bays long, is attached to the south-east end of the spinning mill and is trapezoidal in plan. It has a saw-tooth roof with north-west facing lights and privies in the south-east angle. Interior: cast-iron columns with bolting heads and ashlar blocks for the line shaft on the party wall with the spinning mill. The weaving shed had six hundred looms.

The engine house straddles the rear junction of the two main buildings. Two bays wide to accommodate a double beam engine, it has a hipped roof with quoins to free corners and two round-arched windows to each wall with voussoirs and interrupted jambs. Entrances on the north-east side comprise a ground-floor door to the engine bed and stone steps up to a working-floor entrance; a later extension from this landing leads to an inserted door to the floor over the boiler house. Ashlar-bound recesses in the side walls mark the position of the entablature beam which supported the engine. This siting allowed efficient power transmission to both sheds.

The boiler house is triangular in plan, positioned in the angle between the weaving shed and engine house with frontage to Hollins Road and floor below road level. The tall ground floor has a fireproof vault over. It is two storeys with a four-span roof. A wide doorway to Hollins Road served for coal delivery; two later openings were inserted, and an arched opening in the rear yard wall provided boiler access. Interior: two rows of tall cylindrical cast-iron columns support parallel-sided cast-iron beams and brick vaults. Similar upper-floor columns support the gutters and tie-beams of timber trusses.

The mechanics' workshops and stores building is two storeys, six bays long and two bays wide, with windows and doors matching the spinning mill style. Traditional interior construction includes inserted ground-floor cast-iron columns of more than one type. Ashlar blocks in the south-east wall suggest power transmission for lathes and machinery. A fireplace stands at the north-west end. Single-storey outbuildings along the canal side have been rebuilt in brick.

A shed at the west end of the site, built between 1860 and 1888, is single storey, trapezoidal in plan and fourteen bays long. It has a saw-tooth roof with north-west facing lights and two rows of cast-iron columns with D-sectioned bolting faces over lugs. A partitioned room at the north-west end probably housed a heating boiler. Power was brought from the spinning mill across the yard; bolt holes in the beams indicate the position of line-shaft supports. This shed probably housed the preparation processes of unpacking, mixing and scutching—the beating process to remove dust and vegetable particles from raw cotton. This use is recorded in 1901. Such processes were sited away from the main mill body as they presented a high fire risk due to sparks from machinery.

The office and warehouse range, built between 1860 and 1888 at the western entrance to the main mill site, is two storeys and six bays, detailed as the spinning mill. The ground floor comprises office and watch house, with a blocked doorway and a quoined archway site, and another doorway in the side wall. The warehouse has three ground-floor entrances and a privy entrance at the north-east end; one taking-in door reaches the first floor.

History

The Ormerod family were engaged in factory and domestic cotton working from the late 18th century. By 1850 they operated wholly from factories, owning several mills in Todmorden parish: Gorpley (1824–70), Friths (circa 1835–1838), Ridgfoot (1844–circa 1905) and Alma (1870s–1905). By 1896 the firm employed eight thousand people across Ridgfoot, Alma and Hollins mills. In 1905 Hollins Mill was purchased by Caleb Hoyle and operated under the Hoyle name until 1930, when W.A. Barker bought it. It continued in cotton spinning and manufacturing until after 1963. By 1986, when the Royal Commission recorded the building, it was in multiple occupation but no longer in textiles use. The chimney, which stood seventy-five yards high, and the front warehouse range had by then been demolished. Users recorded in 2001 included Pockets Leisure, Angus Firth Design, J & F Manufacturing, V.Power Ltd, and Lancashire and Yorkshire Flooring Company.