North Range at Westwood Mills

This is a warehouse and workshop range, built in the early 19th century, with later alterations. The building is constructed of coursed, hammer-dressed gritstone laid to diminishing courses, with a stone slate roof and largely removed glazed roof lights. The south elevation faces a mill yard and features an entrance on the far left, with plain jambs and a lintel that continues as a band above the first-floor windows. The windows on this side are generally plain, with lintels and sills, although those on the ground floor of bays 5, 6, and 7 are blocked by rubble and obscured by a 20th-century electricity substation. A large, pointed arched window, likely originally taking-in doors, is centrally positioned on the second and third floors. The north elevation, which faces the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, shows the lintel of a blocked ground-floor opening in bay 4 as an original feature. A semi-circular stair tower projects to the far right, rising only to first-floor level. The ground floor of this elevation has a blocked doorway with plain stone jambs and lintel in bay 3, flanked by windows to the left and one to the right. A wider window with a re-used stone surround is located above the entrance on the first floor, alongside a larger window with rock-faced ashlar detailing. There are two circular tie-bar plates at first-floor level and three at a higher level. The stonework change at the top storey suggests that the building may have been raised. The east gabled elevation shows original 2- and 3-light mullioned windows that were altered to create loading doors to each storey. The building’s interior has not been inspected. It is thought John Shaw built a fulling and scribbling mill around 1800, and this warehouse or office range likely predates the opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in 1811. The current structure probably dates from the 1820s when John, Jonathan, and Eli Shaw took over the business and made alterations. The limited fenestration on the canal side likely reflected a concern for security, while the large windows on the south side would have provided light for unpacking, sorting wool, checking, and repairing woven pieces.