The Old Silk Mill

The Old Silk Mill is a former silk mill, later converted to workshops, dating back to the 18th century. It was built in two phases, and from December 1902, it became workshops for C.R. Ashbee and the Guild of Handicrafts. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble, with a Welsh slate roof. It has a rectangular plan and is three storeys high with an attic to the right-hand section, featuring an eight-window first-floor range.

The main entrance is in the fourth opening, featuring double plank doors and a large late 18th-century fanlight with radial glazing bars set within an ashlar surround with imposts and a keystone. Continuous timber lintels cover the 3-light wood casement windows throughout, with a two-light window in the eighth bay and plank loading doors in the fifth. An inserted round-arched window to the right has a two-light casement with radial glazing to the head and sill. The rear of the building projects, displaying similar fenestration to the front, but with paired casements separated by stone mullions. While some modern windows are visible within the original openings, most are 3-light metal casements, including some with green glass.

The interior retains numerous original features. An entrance passageway housed a mill wheel. The ground floor has some four-panel doors, while the upper floors feature chamfered joists and exposed tie beams. A dog-leg oak staircase rises from the entrance passage, with remnants of turned half-balusters to the newels. Each workshop on the first floor has a fireplace, and there's fluted wooden housing for wires—electricity was installed by C.R. Ashbee in 1903, the first in the town—along with some pulleys from Ashbee’s lathes. A central window on the rear of the second floor is inscribed with the name "J.T. Bruce, Plumber, glazier and house painter" along with the date November 29, 1829. The roof is king post construction.

The mill also contains three attached plaster plaques designed by Ashbee, two on the ground floor, one on the staircase landing, depicting coats of arms between bands of foliage. A metal memorial plaque is also on the landing, commemorating C.W. Atkinson, a Guildsman and the first apprentice of the Guild of Handicraft, dated 1894, and featuring an ornamental repousse wreath and enamelled detailing.

This silk mill is a significant example of an 18th-century industrial building, remarkably unaltered since Ashbee's time, retaining much of its original green glass. It was a pivotal location for the Guild of Handicraft, founded by Ashbee in 1888, and served as a pioneering social experiment embodying Arts and Crafts principles.