Torr Vale Mill, attached weir, sluice gates, watercourse walls, headrace arches, retaining walls and steps

Torr Vale Mill is a textile factory of major historical significance, located in New Mills beside the River Goyt. It comprises three linked principal buildings with numerous ancillary structures, defined on its western and north-western edges by the river itself.

The complex was built around 1790 as a water-powered cotton spinning and weaving factory, with major alterations and additions between 1860 and 1879, becoming fully developed by the latter date. The buildings are constructed of rubble grindstone with dressed quoins and dressings to door and window openings, with Welsh slate roof coverings.

The Old Mill, built circa 1790, stands to the north. It is four storeys high (originally five), with three bays. It was possibly built as an unpowered loomshop, featuring two- and three-light flush-mullioned windows, some of which survived radical late 19th-century alterations. The lower two storeys contain blocked 18th-century doorways, while the east end has inserted taking-in doors to upper floors. The interior contains late 19th-century floors with a timber spine beam supported on cast-iron columns. The upper storey floor has been removed, with tall cast-iron columns supporting timbers above. Late 19th-century roof trusses feature angled struts and a vertical tie rod.

A Link Block of four storeys and four bays connects the Old Mill to the Cotton Mill. It has stacked tall window openings with 20th-century frames, and off-centre stacked taking-in doorways with stone surrounds. The lower two storeys employ fireproof construction with transverse brick ceiling vaults supported by a single row of cast-iron columns, while the upper floors are of timber construction beneath king-post roof trusses.

The Cotton Mill, built in 1860, is the principal component. It is five storeys and 11 bays, with a triple-ridged roof behind a shallow parapet. The wide end wall displays six windows to each storey, with stacked tall rectangular window openings featuring plain heads and cills and 20th-century frames. A staircase with a later two-storey rectangular entrance lobby occupies the south-east corner.

The Cotton Mill interior employs fireproof construction throughout, including both the main mill and attached stair tower. Transverse brick ceiling vaults are supported on two rows of cast-iron columns and cast-iron beams with side flanges and circular yokes at the junctions with tie beams. Cast-iron bearing boxes and blocked floor traps for an upright power shaft remain visible on the north-east end. The basement incorporates the remains of an earlier water-powered mill with two wheel pits, one of which remains accessible through a tail race arch in the north-west corner.

Attached to the south-west side wall is a single-storey brick Boiler House, a replacement for an earlier building. It has a shallow-pitched roof with a small ridge louvre and still houses a single Lancashire boiler. Behind this is a rubble stone Watercourse Wall for the east tailrace to the cotton mill, and a shallow stone Tailrace Arch for the western tailrace.

The Weaving Mill, dated to circa 1860, is L-shaped, with a main block of eight bays extending into a three-bay wing to the north-east. Like the Cotton Mill, it features stacked tall rectangular window openings with plain heads and cills and 20th-century frames, with end plates to tie rods between windows at the lower storeys.

The Weaving Mill interior employs timber floor construction with cross beams supported originally by a single column of slender cast-iron columns. At ground floor level, these were supplemented by columns on either side of the originals. Substantial roof trusses feature struts inclined inwards to support collars which carry short king posts. The chimney forms part of the 1860 development and was linked by underground flue to the Cotton Mill basement, which housed the steam engine.

Within the angle of the L-shaped Weaving Mill range is a tapered square chimney, with an attached Retaining Wall extending north and south to define the approach to a short flight of stone steps.

A range of ancillary buildings extends northwards from the south end of the yard, including a three-storey, two-bay House of coursed grindstone with a ground floor 8-over-8 pane sash window and 20th-century frames to upper windows. A two-storey, three-bay Office features a long ground floor office window, first floor 2-over-2 pane sashes, and a panelled, half-glazed L-shaped interior corridor. Further north is an open-fronted shed with workshops above, linked to a taller six-bay Workshop of rubble gritstone (formerly a joiners shop with mechanics shop above), and an added Smithy to the rear with forge remaining in situ.

To the north-east, at the rear of the Old Mill, the masonry curved Weir extends the full width of the River Goyt from the Watercourse Wall. At the north end of the wall are a pair of cast-iron sluice gates with bevel-geared controls, located at the mouth of the headrace. At the end of the headrace are masonry Headrace Arches (one within the other), with a flight of steps over, leading up to the Old Mill.

Torr Vale Mill represents a near-complete example of a multi-phase integrated cotton spinning and weaving factory. It retains extensive evidence for both water- and steam-powered phases of manufacture, buildings representing each stage of the site's developmental chronology, and examples of both fireproof and conventional timber-floored construction. The site also demonstrates how manufacturing processes and power transmission were adapted to the constraints of the steeply sided valley in which it sits. The mill has remained in continuous use for textile manufacture from the 1790s, making it a remarkable survival enhanced by this unbroken industrial heritage.