Whitchurch Silk Mill

Whitchurch Silk Mill

This water-powered mill was originally built in 1813-15 as a sawmill and furniture factory by William Hayter, an ironfounder, brushmaker, dealer and chapman. It was converted to a silk mill in 1817-19 by William Maddick, a silk manufacturer.

The building is constructed of soft red and grey brick in Flemish bond on a stone base. The principal northern elevation is in good quality red brick, while the southern elevation uses mixed red, grey and brown brick, some of it vitrified. Timber-framed and weather-boarded wings are attached to both the northern and southern ends. All roofs are kingpost construction clad in Welsh slate.

The mill is rectangular on plan with three storeys arranged across five symmetrical bays. It was originally constructed as a two-storey building with a central drive-through ground floor loading bay but was subsequently converted to three full floors to house weaving looms on the ground and first floors, with a powered winding floor above. A structure at the northern end contains the water wheel and its gearing. A two-storey wing of similar scale at the southern end houses the mill manager's office.

The symmetrical northern elevation is designed in a restrained Georgian idiom typical of industrial buildings of the period. It features a central pedimented bay beneath a low-pitched hipped roof. Evidence of the original two-storey arrangement remains visible in patched brickwork between floors, and the cill level of the ground floor windows remains unchanged. The central bay contains a pair of windows that replaced the original cart entrance. Windows throughout are small-paned iron fixed lights beneath shallow cambered red brick arches. Ground floor and first floor windows have 6 x 4 lights, while the upper floor windows have 6 x 3 lights, set high under the eaves. Most windows incorporate upper cambered 6 x 3 light sections from Hayter's 1813-15 windows and/or rectangular 6 x 3 light lower sections. The main elevations have brick cogged eaves except for the pediment, which is rendered above a dentil cornice. Within the pediment is the clock face of a Handley and Moore clock dated 1815.

Centrally placed on the roof is an open-sided timber lantern which housed the bell. It is constructed on a square base with square piers at the corners and a cambered arch with a keystone on each face, surmounted by an ogival domed roof with a tall finial and weather vane.

The southern elevation echoes the northern façade in simplified form, without the prominent pediment. Windows are similarly arranged, and apart from one replacement, reuse components of the earlier windows. The original two-storey arrangement is similarly evident in the brickwork. A single stack stands at the south-east angle, and a single inserted casement sits in the eastern gable wall beneath the eaves.

Timber-framed and weather-boarded wings are attached at each end, contemporary with the main building and also with slate-clad half-hipped kingpost roofs. The western wing encase the water wheel and its gearing, with the crown wheel at upper floor level within a space currently used as a carpenters' workshop. It has fixed 3 x 3 three-light windows to the north and south, with the upper floor reached by external stairs on the south elevation. The eastern wing has two full storeys with an outshot to the south. The north elevation entrance has a ledge and plank door beneath a simple canopy on shaped brackets, with an adjacent horizontally arranged two-light window with leaded lights beneath a cambered head, probably dating from 1817-19. The upper floor has a 3 x 3 pane fixed light. In the eastern gable wall is an eight over eight pane sash window, replacing the original which is thought to be reused in the shop building.

The ground floor weaving floor has two arcades of cast iron piers supporting the floor above and a plank floor. Mounted on the floor are late 19th and early 20th-century tappet and dobby looms, installed between 1890 and 1960, along with other machinery and hand looms acquired for the museum.

At first floor level, the rear arches and lintels of the former cart and window openings from the two-storey arrangement remain in place. At the eastern end of the building, a pine stair with square newels and balusters rises from ground to first floor level within a matchboard-clad stair well. A winder stair rises to the upper floor. A hatch at each level at the eastern end of the mill building, with a winch mechanism, allows the warp beam on a beam trolley to be winched from the winding floor to the weaving floors below.

The third floor contains water-powered winding frames driven by a historic line shaft, reconstructed in the 1980s, a warping mill with a rare boar-shaped creel installed in 1890, and a museum collection of hand weaving equipment and tools associated with silk weaving.

In the roof space is a clock inscribed Handley and Moore, London, 1815, housed in a pedimented wooden case.

The timber-framed structure of the wheel house is of varied scantling suggesting repair and replacement, with a kingpost roof of similar construction to the main roof. A ledge and plank door gives access to the second floor of the mill.

Within the wheel house is a cast iron breast-shot wheel installed around 1890 with replaced timber paddles; the crown wheel is of timber. The mechanism is in full working order, with perishable components repaired or replaced as required.