Report - Brierfield Mills - May 15 - Permission Visit

Funlester · Aug 4, 2015

I got invited to this visit of someone I got chatting to on FB and was a nice place to look round to see how it it and what they are trying to turn it in to.

HISTORY -
Brierfield Mills stands on the east bank of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. It was established before 1844 as a steam-powered cotton mill but the buildings shown on the 1844 map, evidently a spinning mill and a weaving shed, were demolished when the site was rebuilt and substantially extended between 1868 and 1907. These new buildings survive and comprise a multi-storey spinning mill dated 1868 parallel to but set slightly back from the canal, an attached two-storey building, three weaving sheds, two freestanding east of the spinning mill and terraced into the valley side, and both of pre-1891 date, and one south of the spinning mill dated 1907, and offices. The buildings are all of squared stone rubble and steam powered. The 1968 spinning mill is four storeys high, 39 bays long, with a central engine and boiler house; it is of fireproof construction. The two weaving sheds to its east are single storeyed, the sheds with three-storeyed warehouse and yarn preparation blocks at their downhill ends. The south-east shed incorporates a stair tower surmounted by a later clock tower and is built up to a two storey range with a warehouse block formerly linked to the railway and a later Italianate office block. The south-east shed of 1907 is single-storeyed with its own corner engine house. The buildings survive in good condition although one of the weaving sheds is now just a facade with a modern interior. Listed.