Tonedale Mills (west complex)

Western complex of an integrated multi-component wool textile factory, now partially in use as a small industrial estate, with remaining component structures empty at the time of inspection in August 2000. Late 18th century, continuously enlarged and remodelled between circa 1800 and circa 1920, with late 20th-century alterations and changes of use to individual components. Constructed of coursed rubble sandstone with ashlar and red brick dressings, and red brick, with slate and 20th-century sheet roof coverings.

Plan and Layout

The complex forms the western half of the extensive wool textile manufacturing site at Tonedale Mills, which is divided into two parts by a watercourse called the Back Stream. The site housed wool and yarn preparation processes in a complex of functionally-related buildings, identified as Mills 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, and a combing shed sited in rectangular configurations to the north and west of the site. A multi-function range housing boiler repair, power generation, wool mixing and cleaning, and tin smithing facilities stands to the east side.

Mills 2 and 3 (Spinning Mills)

Mills 2 and 3 represent the phased development between 1861 and 1871 of a twenty-one bay steam-powered, and subsequently electrically-powered, worsted spinning mill. The early phase to the east comprises eleven bays of four storeys and attics, constructed of rubble sandstone with keyed semi-circular arch-headed windows up to second floor level, and similar window openings to the attic floor. The fourth floor has flat-headed openings. The entrance to the mill is located within a fireproof stair tower at the east end, within a six-bay return elevation. The doorway has plank double doors with an adjacent shaft box for entry of a horizontal shaft associated with a vertical drive shaft, now removed, within the stair well.

The later phase of circa 1871 extends ten bays to the west, constructed to a slightly wider plan but matching the earlier phase in materials and external detailing. This phase includes a fireproof stair and water tower and a large engine house at the junction of the two phases.

Interior

Both phases are of non-fireproof construction, with timber floors supported on substantial cross beams. Cast-iron columns feature compression plates and bolting faces on the north side for line shaft cradles. The roof has an M-profile collar construction with principals carried on cast-iron brackets bolted to floor beams. Collars set within cast-iron shoes support short king posts. Roof valley column supports have rectangular eyed heads. The later phase shares these constructional characteristics but has heavier columns with four-way bolting faces, and the upper floors retain evidence of multiple line shafts. Both phases retain internal metal fire doors. The stair tower has brick jack arch fireproofing.

The adjacent engine house has a brick vaulted ceiling at third floor level retaining lifting rings. The engine house, thought to have housed a double beam engine designed to power both sides of the mill, retains the engine entablature support stonework in the internal cross walls and cast-iron shaft boxes for the vertical power shaft, now removed.

Combing Shed

To the north of Mills 2 and 3 stands a single-storeyed combing shed for sorting and combing worsted fibre prior to spinning. This narrow rectangular brick building has projecting bays to the south frontage facing the spinning mill, which formerly housed combing machinery.

Mills 4 and 6

To the south of the spinning mill are Mills 4 and 6. Mill 4 is of red brick with a slated roof, two storeys, fourteen bays, aligned east-west, with a narrow five-bay storeyed cross wing at the east end. The main range has stacked basket arch-headed windows to each bay, with double doors to both floors at the east end. The roof has a hipped west end with deep eaves supported on paired brackets. The narrow gabled cross wing has its gable detailed as an open pediment, with a ground floor doorway beneath a multi-pane overlight. The east side wall has stacked windows and a single doorway to bay two. The mill was used for blending coloured wool fibres, with carding machines on the first floor. The narrow end bay was a storeyed motor room used to power the upper floor machinery.

To the east stands Mill 6, constructed of rubble stone with red brick dressings. Ten bays, three storeys, with four-bay returns and a narrow two-bay upper floor with horizontally-boarded cheeks above short roof slopes to outer bays. The west gable has windows arranged vertically in a 4:4:2 pattern. The east gable has an infilled double doorway to the centre, four first floor openings and two upper floor openings, one a window and one with a boarded shutter. The boarded flanks, originally louvred, now house casement frames. The building was originally multi-functional, with baskets used for wool transportation on site made on the upper two floors, and machines for puttee (military leggings) knitting on the ground floor. This building appears to have been powered by a horizontal shaft from the spinning mill to the north.

Mill 5

To the south of Mill 4 stands Mill 5, a massive rectangular building of fourteen bays with a narrow storeyed frontage aligned north-south and a north-light shed extending westwards to the site boundary. Dating from the late 19th century, it is constructed of smooth red brick rising from a deep plinth, with a narrow storeyed range forming the east front, with hipped slated roof and semi-circular arch-headed window and door openings. Single-storeyed half-hip roofed porches are located at bays one and two, and bays eleven and twelve, each with three blind semi-circular arched openings and a wide doorway. Closely-spaced tall window openings are found on the ground floor, with a smaller number of first floor openings, some detailed as taking-in doors. A single pivoting wall crane survives towards the centre of the range. Three-bay returns are found at each end, with single-storey shed side walls extending to the west.

Interior

The floored frontage range has chute openings in the ceiling for carded wool processed at first floor level. The arcaded shed interior has cast-iron columns supporting transverse arcade plates, with straight timber braces mounted in sockets in the columns. The columns are widely spaced, each bay accommodating two sections of half-glazed north light roof. The shed was used for manual wool sorting after washing and carding processes had taken place.

Multi-Function Range

West of Mill 5 stands the multi-function range. At the north is a twin-gabled red brick boiler repair house with wide semi-circular arched openings to the centre of the ground floors and twin upper floor openings. The northern part has interior lifting gear; the southern part was adapted for storage. Further south is a low, single-storeyed rubble stone L-shaped cross range, formerly a power house providing alternating and direct current electricity from diesel generators. Further south on the west side is a hipped roof red brick range with long and short wings extending eastwards, which accommodated a tin smithing shop associated with other metal-working shops on site, and wool mixing and cleaning processes required prior to carding and sorting in the shed opposite.

Historical Significance

This is a multi-phase and multi-function 19th-century wool textile mill site, forming the western part of the Tonedale Mills complex. The site retains a full complement of buildings which housed the wool preparation and yarn spinning processes required in the manufacture of woollen and worsted cloths, together with power generation and ancillary processes such as basket making and metal working needed in a complex, geographically-dispersed manufacturing complex. Tonedale Mills is thought to be the largest and most comprehensively-representative textile manufacturing site in the south-west, with a range of surviving structures unparalleled in England.