Fort Pendlestone Including Sluice And Leat Bridge To North

Fort Pendlestone is a textile mill complex built circa 1845 for Thomas C. Whitmore of Apley Hall. An engine-house and boiler-house were added in 1866, with later 20th-century additions and alterations. The buildings are primarily constructed of red sandstone ashlar, with plain tile roofs and some flat areas with lantern lights.

The mill complex comprises an eight-bay factory with its water-mill house attached to the north end, and a warehouse at right-angles to the south-east, forming an L-shaped plan. In 1866, a boiler-house was added to the south side of the warehouse, and an engine-house was built to the south of the factory. A detached managers house and office are situated to the east of the factory range, and have been extended to the south. A sluice and bridge over the leat are located to the north. The design is in a Tudor Gothic style.

The factory is a large two-storey building with tall octagonal corner turrets featuring ventilation slits and pitched caps. A larger stair-turret is situated on the north-east corner with battlements. The bays are divided by buttresses with set-offs and gables above the parapet, and have stone mullion-transom windows with deeply chamfered reveals. Attached to the north end of the factory is a small water-mill house, bridged over a mill race, featuring arched doorways and two small windows on the west side.

The two-storey warehouse to the south-east has a double-span roof with stepped gables, diagonal buttresses, and four-light mullion-transom windows in the gable-end, with raised centre lights on the first floor. The north elevation has cross-mullion-transom windows and an arched doorway with a loading door above. Attached to the south side is the boiler-house, with the base of a chimney to the east, and the engine-house to the west, topped with a 20th-century water-tank.

The manager’s house to the east is two storeys high, with three bays; the gabled centre bay projects forward with set-offs, a stone oriel, and a four-centred arch doorway with a hoodmould featuring shield stops. It has two and three-light mullion windows, and a stepped north gable-end with a loop at the top and a French casement window on the ground floor. A projecting office wing at the south end has been extended in brick and features a diagonal buttress.

Across the leat to the north, a three-bay brick bridge has chamfered four-centred arches and cutwaters, along with a sluice with cast and wrought-iron gates.

Internally, the water-mill machinery, steam engine, and later turbine have been removed. The factory range has cast-iron columns supporting iron beams and jack-arches; the first floor is top-lit from conical iron lanterns in the flat roof. The warehouse range also has cast-iron columns and iron beams.