Cotton Doubling Mill At Draycott Mills

The cotton doubling mill at Draycott Mills, now a disused warehouse, was built in 1800 for Benjamin Towle. It is constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings and features slate roofs. The building has a first floor sill band, a coped parapet, and gables, and it stands two storeys high with attics, measuring 16 by 3 bays. Most windows are boarded or blocked, but they were originally segment-headed cast iron casements with glazing bars.

The west side has a regular arrangement of windows and an inserted door to the right. The east side mirrors this fenestration, with inserted double doors on each floor to the right, situated under a gable. Each end of the building has a central gable topped with a coped stack and containing a lunette. The central door, which is blocked on the north end, is flanked by single windows, and above it are three windows, with the central one being larger. The south end features a bearing box that allows for drive from an adjacent building, as well as an iron lamp bracket at the southeast corner. This mill is part of an integrated works for the manufacture of cotton yarn and lace and is notable as an early example of a doubling mill powered by means other than water.