The Silk Mill

The Silk Mill is a textile mill complex, now used as light engineering factories, built in 1824 for William Kay, who had recently purchased the Manor of Tring. Initially managed by Kay’s brother from Macclesfield, the mill was leased to David Evans & Co. after four years and remained in operation until 1898. In the early 20th century, the mill was reduced to three storeys overall, and a stair tower was added to the front during the Second World War, with steel beams inserted below the original floors to provide additional strength.

The complex is constructed of red brick with slate roofs; the east front of the west range is now painted. It comprises a courtyard layout, with a tall west range measuring 150 by 35 feet, originally five floors high but now three, a lower south range of two and three floors, measuring 100 by 35 feet, and a long, single-storey east range facing the mill and Brook Street. The east range was originally built to accommodate children working in the mill and later served as offices and workshops.

The north range features brick walls, timber floors with boards carried on heavy timber cross-beams, linked by lesser beams, and a pitched roof supported by re-used original wide-span queen-post timber trusses. The eaves soffit and projected verge are embellished with shaped brackets, cantilevered purlins, and wallplates. The windows are closely spaced with gauged brick cambered arches and recessed wooden windows with small panes; some windows incorporate a top-hung opening light in the central third. A step in the west wall indicates a vertical brick shaft, possibly for belting.

An aqueduct runs at a high level along the west side of the mill, and an enclosed iron waterwheel, 22 feet in diameter and 6 feet wide, remains in situ at the junction of the west end of the south ranges. The waterwheel rotates clockwise when viewed from the north, and features buckets, iron cross-bracing, and a heavy four-flanged iron axle, with power taken from a rack along the rim.

The eastern end of the south range incorporates a two-storey and basement block with a hipped roof, designed to resemble a three-window symmetrical house, constructed in red brick with cambered gauged arches, stone sills, broad giant stucco pilasters at each end above a plinth, and paired brackets. It includes recessed sash windows with 15/10 small panes and a three-centred arched doorway with a threshold 1 meter above pavement. A half-glazed door and basement windows with eight panes are present. The interior walls are painted brick, and a wide relieving arch spans the rear wall where it adjoins a two-storey warehouse with wooden roof trusses. The ground level is higher on the south side, making the warehouse appear as a single storey.

The western part of the south range is a taller engine house with a pilastered south wall, five windows facing the yard, a glazed top-hamper to the iron-framed roof, and a massive vaulted base used to support electrical generators. A square brick chimney formerly stood to the northwest but has since been demolished.

In 1840, the mill housed a 25 horsepower steam engine and 16 horsepower of water power, employing 40 men, 140 women, and 320 children. Gerald Massey, the Chartist poet and inspiration for Felix Holt in George Eliot's novel, worked in the mill in 1836 at the age of eight.