Former Donisthorpe and Company Limited factory building overlooking River Soar

MATERIALS: the mill is constructed of red brick, with a hipped roof covered in slates laid to diminishing courses.

PLAN: rectangular on plan, with a surviving added structure at the north end.

EXTERIOR: the building is of three storeys and attics, and seven bays, the central three bays being slightly advanced below an open pediment. The window openings are set beneath shallow segmental arches and are fitted with wooden cross window frames with glazing bars. The ground floor windows are tall openings and were overboarded at the time of inspection. There are no ground floor windows to its south end and part of the north end is enclosed within a later extension on the river frontage side of the building. The east front of the building has been recently fully exposed by the removal of later accretions, revealing door openings at half landing level to the upper floors and a blocked opening at ground floor level to the north end bay. The roof supports a central hexagonal cupola with a lead-covered domed roof originally surmounted by a weathervane, now removed. There are 4 small dormer windows within the front and rear roof slopes which light the attic floor At the north end of the building is an attached building with shallow full-height buttresses to the side walls and clerestory-like windows at eaves level on the west elevation. It does not appear to be shown, in its present form at least, on George Henton’s 1893 painting of the site. The building has had a large opening formed in its north gable.

INTERIOR: the mill interior has tall timber queen-post roof trusses with collars, angle struts and squat ashlar posts; an arrangement which produces an unimpeded central roof space. The roof slopes are underboarded so the purlins and the upper sections of the principal rafters are not visible. In the lower floors, bridging beams are supported by a variety of iron columns, some with bolting faces for brackets to support line shafting. There appears to be no consistent design or location pattern for the columns throughout the mill, suggesting that they were introduced incrementally in response to both increased floor loadings and the introduction of powered processes.

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS: there are no fixtures or fittings of special interest and the building has been cleared of machinery. The attached building at the north end of the mill has also been stripped of its plant and equipment.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 10/05/2018