Winker Green Mill Reservoir Dams and Linking Walls

Winker Green Mill Reservoir Dams and Linking Walls

A scribbling and fulling mill with boundary walls located on Stanningley Road in Armley, Leeds. Built between 1825 and 1850, with additions made between 1871 and 1889, the complex was constructed for William Eyres and Sons, clothiers (the firm being run by Benjamin, William, Samuel, and Joseph). The buildings are constructed from coursed squared gritstone rubble and brick on stone foundations, with slate roofs throughout.

The complex comprises four surviving buildings: an entrance block, mill range, south workshop, and north weaving shed, along with three reservoir dams and linking walls.

The entrance block features a stone ground floor with brick above, rising to three storeys. The first floor contains eleven windows, one of which is blocked, with slightly cambered brick arches and a small-pane frame to the far right of the second floor. The entrance passage is marked by a round arch of rusticated stone voussoirs, with a pedestrian door to the right. The ground floor has no fenestration. The range originally extended much further to the right, spanning over 91 metres in length and containing offices and warehousing.

The mill range rises to four storeys and comprises nineteen bays, with an added six-bay similar range at the east end. Stone appears on parts of the ground floor, with brick used elsewhere. Stone lintels mark the ground-floor openings, while cambered brick arches are used for fenestration above. A moulded cornice runs along the top, with scroll kneelers to the west gable. Rainwater heads are dated 1833. The building includes remains of an earlier engine house, a second engine house of two storeys, and a stair tower with taking-in doors on the south side. A brick chimney with a stone band stands at the north-east corner, featuring a square base and octagonal shaft, though the top is missing. A water-control mechanism is located on the north side of the building at the site of the reservoir.

The south workshop is constructed entirely of stone and rises to four storeys. The north side features ten first-floor windows, while the ground and first floors on the south side have no fenestration. Windows throughout are of two lights with plain sills and lintels and flat-faced mullions. The north side ground floor contains one window with small-pane frames, and a wide doorway in a plain stone surround appears at the far right. A cast-iron pulley bracket is attached to the wall nearby, and taking-in doors are positioned to the left of centre.

The north weaving shed was added between 1871 and 1889 near the north side of the mill, at its west end. It features a stone west wall with brick elsewhere, is trapezoidal in plan, single-storey, and includes top lights.

The interior, though not inspected during the listing survey, was recorded in detail by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. The records document working floors of traditional construction with timber beams and cast-iron columns, and drying floors over the boiler house with pierced cast-iron plates carried on a cast-iron framework.

A boundary wall, approximately 1.5 metres high and 70 metres long, extends along the road edge on the north side of the mill ground. It features rounded coping stones and probably incorporates part of the front wall of the originally much longer entrance range.

This complex represents a rare example of one of the earliest phases of the factory system used for cloth production, with several textile manufacturing processes practised on the premises. The limited fenestration on the outer walls reflects the security concerns of the period, when new methods and machines were closely guarded by mill owners. The Eyres also built housing for their employees close to the mill.