D Mill

D Mill at Dean Clough, Halifax, is a warehouse then mill dating from 1854, 1872 and 1888 with late 19th-century and 20th-century alterations and additions. It was built by Roger Ives for Crossley and Sons, the carpet manufacturers. The building is constructed in hammer-dressed stone with part slate roofs and part corrugated metal roofs.

The building is aligned north-south with 6 storeys plus a basement, 6 bays wide and 32 bays long. Throughout the structure is a modillion cornice and parapet with pilaster strips. The glazing has been renewed.

The west elevation reveals the building's construction phases clearly. The northern end, from 1854, contains 20 windows with taking-in doors (now windows) in the third bay from the left featuring rusticated ashlar dressings. Various ground-floor entrances include arched single doors with rusticated ashlar dressings and keystones in the 8th and 14th bays, and a cart entrance in the 7th bay. The southern section, added in 1872, has 10 windows with an entrance in a widened first bay incorporating rusticated ashlar dressings, a segmental arched lintel, bracketed cornice and scrolled pediment with a central circular mirror. At the southern extremity, a wide cart entrance with a segmental arch and decorative iron lintel bearing the date 1872 occupies 2 bays and was designed for access by railway wagons. The second-floor windows are larger with rusticated ashlar dressings and a projecting string marking the original building height. At the southern end, two covered footbridges at second and sixth-floor levels link to E Mill; the lower bridge is dated 1956.

Ground levels to the east vary considerably. The basement to the west stands above ground to the east, while the ground is higher to the north so that the north end presents 3 storeys to the west and 4 to the east. The main building is 6 bays across and is topped by a gable end to the north. To the south, 3 covered walkways at different heights cross Dean Clough Road to G Mill; the lowest is timber construction with king post trusses.

The east elevation features an external toilet tower at the southern end of the 1854 building with three round-headed windows facing east and two facing south, with string courses and a continuation of the cornice and parapet. The top two floors extend 3 bays to the north with 5 small windows on each floor, supported on an iron framework. A metal enclosed footbridge connects D Mill to Bowling Dyke Mill at the top floor level at the 11th bay from the north. The 1872 and 1888 extensions match the west side. Lower floors on the east are obscured by late 19th-century extensions. A 3-storey, 8-bay building occupies the centre with a later flat roof replacing a north light roof. A 2-storey, 3-bay section to the north has a pitched roof and is abutted by brick construction linking to a lift shaft at Bowling Dyke Mill. At the southern end are further extensions including a 2-storey building with carriage entrances onto Dean Clough Road and a pyramidal roof, followed by a pent roof building which now serves as the main entrance to D Mill.

The interior has been converted to office spaces, galleries, reception area, shop, café, restaurant and cooking school. The joint between the main building and eastern extensions is visible in an exposed former external wall with a change in floor levels—the eastern extension floors being lower than those in the main building. The main staircase, cast iron columns and brick jack arches survive on all floors in the main building, though concealed in some areas. The eastern extension has columns supporting heavy steel joists to the ceilings. At basement level, the main building connects to a theatre beneath E Mill through a passage beneath the current road level.

Historically, 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 the Hebble Brook, which runs south of the site. From 1841, 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.

After 1836, Crossley's purchased the ground on which D Mill stands and built a gasworks, stables and dyehouses. D Mill was constructed in 1854 on the north-west corner of this land. It was probably Roger Ives's first building at Dean Clough and the first at the site to use fireproof construction. The absence of evidence for a steam engine and the presence of cart entrances suggest it may have been a warehouse rather than a spinning mill.

In 1870, the dyehouse and drying house in this area were demolished and D Mill was extended southward in 1872, when a steam engine was installed and an arched entrance for railway wagons was added. Initially 3 storeys, it was raised to 4 storeys in 1888. Between 1880 and 1900, the gasworks and remaining dyeworks to the east were removed and an extension was added to the east side. In the 20th century, following the removal of the steam engine, two further bays were added to the south and the extension was raised to match the original building's height. Carpet production finally ceased in 1982 after a gradual run-down following the merger of John Crossley & Sons with Carpet Trade Holdings and the Carpet Trades Manufacturing Company of Kidderminster.