Low Westwood Upper Mills, Low Westwood Lane, Golcar

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Details

  • location: off Low Westwood Lane, Golcar
  • status: now partly in ruins
  • category: woollen mill

Historic England Listing

  • Grade II*
  • first listed 11 July 1985 & 20 June 2000
  • listing entry numbers 1271263 (boiler & engine house), 1217132 (offices & workshop range), 1216966 (west block) & 1216965 (north range)

COLNE VALLEY. LOWESTWOOD LANE. Linthwaite. Boiler House, Engine House, Rope Race, Water Tower and Powerhouse at Westwood Mills. Boiler and engine houses, rope race with water tower and powerhouse. 1826, mid and late C19. Built for the Shaw and Cotton families. Coursed and squared local gritstone, stone slate roofs largely removed. Powerhouse 3 storey, 4 x 3 bay block attached to south end of West Block (qv), with north doors giving access into the old mill yard, large windows with segmental heads and 3 x 3 pane frames. Stone gutter brackets and kneelers, roof of 3 parallel ridges; attached 2 storey building on west side with lean-to roof and west wall angled to allow access between it and the mill dam (qv). INTERIOR has cast iron columns supporting brick arches on ground floor. Water tower and rope race block extend the length of the south side of the powerhouse. Engine and boiler houses attached to south-west corner of the water tower. The gables of the engine house have tall windows, round arched on the east end, with inserted doorway and external steps. Boiler house has wide ground floor entrance door and 3-light Venetian window in west end.

COLNE VALLEY. LOWESTWOOD LANE. LINTHWAITE. Offices and Workshop Range at Westwood Mills (Formerly listed as: LOWESTWOOD LANE LINTHWAITE House at Westwood Mill). Office and workshop range. Early C19, with some later alterations. Coursed hammer-dressed gritstone, stone roof slates largely removed. 2 storeys, 3 bays survive and there are the remains of a 4th bay at the north end. All openings now blocked. East elevation: second entrance bay has plain stone surround with tie-stone jambs; 2- and 3-light windows with flat-faced mullions, those to ground floor left removed. The fourth bay survives as a screen wall with a 2-light window blocked with stones on the ground floor. West elevation; to mill yard has blocked doorway and window to ground floor. South elevation has segmental arch with stone voussoirs, blocked by brickwork, just above ground level right, long tie-stone above; the upper window level and the gable are rendered. North elevation: gabled rubble walling has remains of plaster indicating that it was an internal wall which was altered when the C20 electricity sub-station was added.

COLNE VALLEY. LOWESTWOOD LANE. LINTHWAITE. West Block at Westwood Mills. Scribbling, carding and fulling mill. c.1800 additions and alterations probably 1824. For John Shaw, clothier, of Lower West Wood. Coursed hammer dressed gritstone laid to diminishing courses; stone slate roof with roof-light removed; iron tie plates. Quoins. 3 storeys above a mill race, the ground floor taller than those above. 7 bays. All openings blocked with cement blocks or boarding at time of review. East elevation [to mill yard]; each floor has a secondary loading door far left; original openings are the round-arched doorway [now window] with keystone and impost to bay 4 and the 2-light windows with flat-faced mullions in plain stone surrounds to first and second storeys. Wide doorway inserted to right of original has monolithic jambs and lintel; 2 altered ground floor windows to left. Far right; on the ground floor the original 2-light window has been altered and a larger opening inserted; the right-hand light of each window on each floor was partly obscured when the north range was constructed and the walling angled to create a squint. West elevation [to dam]; added bay to north gable far left and projecting 2-bay extension with cat-slide roof to bays 2 and 3. Original range has 2- and 3-light windows to first and second floors; ground floor openings larger, with some alterations; those to right of projecting block partly obscured but including mill race opening. Projecting block, at west side has 2-light window on ground floor, and two original single light windows at first floor; walling above all one build. Left return [facing canal] has 2-light window to ground and first floors and large blocked opening above. North gable has tier of 3-light windows on west side and angled wall with straight join and lintel of low brick-blocked opening near ground level at left at wheel pit level. Changes in stonework indicate that north end is built on foundations of earlier building. Range is reported to retain wheel pit and turbine. INTERIOR; not inspected. HISTORY. Documentary evidence suggests that this is the water-powered scribbling, carding and fulling mill built in 1789 or 1801 by James Shaw who leased the fulling mill at Lower West Wood [now Titanic Mill] from the Hon. R L Savile. It was built immediately after the opening of the five-mile stretch of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal between Huddersfield and Slaithwaite and before its completeion in April 1811. Records show that in 1824 it was described as 'Upper scribbling mill' when it was leased by John, Jonathan and Eli Shaw of Golcar. In this year the west side was rebuilt and the outshot building added and other modifications to the building were probably made as possibly more machines for the preparation of yarn and spinning were introduced. The water-wheel was replaced by an 85hp. Gunther & Son water turbine in 1920. NOTE: Fire insurance plaque in centre above first floor windows.

COLNE VALLEY. LOWESTWOOD LANE. LINTHWAITE. North range at Westwood Mills (Formerly listed as: LOWESTWOOD LANE LINTHWAITE East Block of Westwood Mills MILLS). Warehouse and workshop range. Early C19 with later alterations. Coursed hammer dressed gritstone laid to diminishing courses; stone slate roofing and glazed roof lights largely removed. Turned back kneelers. 3 storeys and 7 bays built parallel to the towpath of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. South elevation: to mill yard, entrance far left with plain jambs and the line of the lintel above the first floor door continues as a band over the windows. The almost-square windows have plain lintels and sills but lack jambs; those to ground floor are blocked by coursed stone rubble and the ground and first floors of bays 5, 6 and 7 are obscured by a C20 electricity substation. The central bay of the second and third floors has a large pointed arched window, probably taling-in doors, with plain stone surrounds. This range post-dates the west fulling mill and the wall line was adjusted to meet the line of the window mullions of the earlier building, creating a tier of 'squints' in the corner. North elevation; to canal, only the lintel of the blocked opening near ground level in bay 4 appears to be an original opening; a semi-circular stair tower projects far right and rises to first floor level only. Ground floor; blocked doorway with plain stone lintel and jambs bay 3, flanked by two windows to left and one to right. First floor; wide window with re-used stone surround above the entrance; larger window with rock-faced ashlar detailing similar to those on ground floor far left. Two circular tie-bar plates at first floor level a three at first floor level. The stonework changes at the top storey suggest that the building may well have been raised. East gabled elevation; the original 2- and 3-light mullioned windows were altered to form loading doors to each storey. INTERIOR; not inspected. HISTORY; John Shaw built a fulling and scribbling mill, now the west range, in c1800 and it is likely that there was an office or warehouse building here before the Huddersfield Narrow Canal was opened in 1811. The present structure probably dates from the 1820's when John, Jonathan and Eli Shaw took over the business and made alterations to the mill. The lack of fenestration on the canal side suggests a concern for security, while the large windows on the south side would have provided light for the unpacking and sorting of wool, and for the checking and repairing of woven pieces.

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