Offices Of North West Water Ltd (Former Factory)

CARLISLE

NY3954 HOLME HEAD 671-1/15/180 Offices of North West Water Ltd 13/11/72 (former factory) (Formerly Listed as: HOLME HEAD Weaving shed on river bank at Holme Head Works)

GV II

Former cotton factory, including beetling and dampening rooms, now water company offices. 1850s; repaired 1864, further late C19 and early C20 additions, for Ferguson Brothers. English garden wall bond brickwork on chamfered plinth (all dressings of red sandstone) and stone-bracketed metal gutter. Hipped double-span slate roof with extensive skylights. Original building was 2 storeys, 9 bays, increased to 13 bays and an extra storey added in 2 phases. Main facade faces the river; regularly-spaced casement windows with glazing bars, the ground-floor windows boarded over, each with a sandstone sill within brick reveals and with flat brick arches. One of the top windows has a round vent. Projecting from lower storey polished granite drinking fountain dated 1870 (now damaged). Similar 5-bay returns. INTERIOR not inspected. This building does not appear on drawing of the factory c1854, but was there in 1863 when it was damaged by floods; plans for its repair are in Cumbria County Record Office, Ca/E4/880 and 5908. The fountain date may signify the extension to 13 bays and the different coloured brickwork shows that the upper storey was added after the extension; photographs show that the right 6 bays were raised before 1907 and the left 7 bays were raised by 1920.

Listing NGR: NY3970454469