Shaw Lodge Mill Chimney

Chimney, 1855, at Shaw Lodge Mill, Halifax. Built in dressed coursed gritstone, this is a tall structure with a square base featuring rock-faced rustication on the quoins and recessed panels on each face. Above the base rises a tapered octagonal chimney. The chimney is connected to the engine house to the south by a tunnel beneath Boys Lane.

The chimney was constructed as part of the Shaw Lodge Mill complex, which dates from the industrial expansion of Halifax's worsted textile industry. John Holdsworth & Company was founded in 1822 by John Holdsworth, whose family were already established as woollen textile manufacturers and merchants in Shibden and Halifax. The company specialised in worsted cloth, initially produced by hand loom weavers. Mechanised spinning developments prompted John Holdsworth to establish his first spinning mill in 1822; by 1825 he was purchasing land at Shaw Lodge, and the extant 'No 1 Mill' on the present site dates to 1830.

The industry's gradual mechanisation of weaving prompted the construction of the first power loom weaving shed at Shaw Lodge in 1844, with further spinning mills and an extension to the weaving shed around the same time and in 1852. The No 2 Mill, dated between 1831 and 1839, stood to the south of the extant buildings at right angles leading eastwards to Hebble Brook. A further mill, unclear whether built to plan from 1925, stood to the north of and adjoining No 1 Mill by 1855.

By 1839 the mills were steam powered with separate engines for each of the two mills. In 1855, a separate engine house, boiler house and this 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 won a medal at the Great Exhibition in 1851 for their worsted cloths. The firm operated branches in Bradford and London run by family members, and John Holdsworth occupied Shaw Lodge, a house close by the western side of the site, now demolished.

Continuing prosperity led to the construction of a 7-storey warehouse to the north of No 3 Mill in 1862, a separate office block with adjoining stable in 1865, and a workshop, shed, tower and timekeepers office added in 1876. Subsequent alterations included loss of the No 2 Mill and the southern end of No 1 Mill, 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 to operate until 2006, surviving the decline of most woollen manufacturing in the country by specialising in moquette production for the bus and coach trade. The site has since been redeveloped.