The Silk Mill (Georgian Crystal)

The Silk Mill, also known as Georgian Crystal, is a silk mill built in the early 18th century for William Lombe. It features Flemish garden wall bond brick with a header-bond rounded southeast corner. The roof is made of clay plain tiles with gabled ends and corbelled brick eaves, which continue into the rounded southeast corner. There is a truncated brick stack with set-offs on the west gable end.

The building has a rectangular single-depth plan, with the left end bay partitioned off. It stands three storeys high and has a five-bay south front. The small window openings have cambered brick arches and replacement window frames with glazing bars. The ground floor has two wider doorways on the left, also with cambered arches, and a later doorway to the right of centre. The right-hand corner is rounded, and there is a window on each floor in the gable ends. The rear wall is blind, except for two later ground floor windows.

Inside, the ground floor features chamfered axial and cross-beams with run-out stops, along with exposed unchamfered joists. The first floor has chamfered cross-beams with run-out stops and ceiled joists. The second floor is open to a four-bay king-post roof, with pegged scarf-jointed purlins. None of the machinery from the mill survives.

This silk mill was built by William Lombe, the brother of Sir Thomas Lombe, who was the first to introduce silk-throwing machinery into England. It is reputed that the mill was driven by a treadmill.