Former Wards Silk Throwing Factory

This is a former silk throwing factory, built around 1807 as a rebuilding of an 18th-century mill. It was extended in the early 19th century, with a further extension added between 1860 and 1886. The factory is constructed of stone rubble with red brick dressings, and has a clay tile roof with stone coped gable ends; one wing has a slate roof, partly re-clad in asbestos. A truncated stone stack is located at the gable end.

The building has an L-shaped layout. The original seven bays of the 12-bay main range date back to around 1807, with further extensions to the east and west in the early 19th century. A two-bay west wing housed a dwelling. Between 1860 and 1886, a wider four-bay wing was constructed projecting to the north.

The north front, with eight bays and the projecting four-bay wing to the left, has 20th-century windows in red brick frames with cambered brick arches. Plank doors are set within brick openings in the third bay from the left, with a loading door above, and in the third bay from the right. The west elevation of the wing features a similar fenestration, with large 20th-century sliding doors on the ground floor. Its gable end has loading doors and the east elevation has blind first-floor windows. The south elevation, with 11 bays, also has similar window patterns; three first-floor windows are blocked.

Internally, the first floor is supported by intersecting beams. The roof is a tenoned-purlin structure with dovetail halved and lapped collar trusses. The roof of the north-east wing has a king-post roof structure.

This building represents an unusual survival of a largely complete early 19th-century hand-powered silk factory.