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Summary

Description

4 fireproof flax mills grouped around a yard comprising,

clockwise, Bell Mill, St Roques Lane (1866), North Mill,

Princes Street (1935), Dens Street Mill, Dens Street (1865)

and St Roques Mill (1830s, rebuilt internally 1889).

a. Bell Mill, Peter Carmichael 1866, 5-storey and attic

12-by 3-bay ironframed rubble-built flax mill. Imposing

4-bay S elevation with projecting Italian Renaissance stair

and lift towers having roundheaded windows blind to S,

paired at 6th floor. W stair tower has superb square

cupola with 2 arched opening to each face, segmental

pediments, drum, domed roof and cross finial. E tower

(housing hoist) balustraded with flag pole. Gable oculus.

E and W elevations 12-bay including towers channelled

ashlar triple-arched passageway traverses mill at ground

floor. Later concrete and corrugated-iron lift blocks

and brick single-storey remnant. N elevation 3-bay mansard

gable with urn finials.

b. Dens Street Mill, Peter Carmichael 1865. 5-storey and

attic 3 by 12-bay rubble-built flax mill. Elevation to Dens

Street 4-storey and attic, 12-bay coursed rubble; with top

band course elevation to yard 5-storey and attic with

ground floor doors. N elevation 3-storey, basement and attic,

3-bay with mansard gable, oculus and urn finials.

S elevation blank mansard gable. Slate roof with original

ornate ventilators.

c. North Mill, George Pyott 1935, links Bell and Dens

Street Mills. 2-storey and attic. 3-by 10-bay coursed

rubble elevation to Princes Street and St Roques Lane.

Central roundel inscribed "Baxter Brothers 1935 Lower Dens

Works". 4-storey reinforced concrete framed elevation

to yard almost completely glazed except brick top floor.

Piended slate roof. Tunnel to Upper Dens Works blocked.

d. St Roques Mill or Wallace Mill, circa 1830-1840, given

iron frame and taller mansard roof by Baxter Brothers 1889.

3-storey basement and attic 7-by 3-bay L-plan rubble-built

flax mill. Elevations to Dens Street 4-bay gable of mill

and 1-bay wing. Attic-level band course 2 windows and

oculus. Mansard gable with urn finials. 7-bay S elevation

with small blocked basement windows. W elevation 2 basement

doors, 1 with cornice to stairs and 1 to engine house,

single windows at ground and 1st floors, 3 windows at 2nd

floor and attic. Mansard gable with oculus and urn finial.

N elevation 4-bay to yard, (a further 2 bays are blocked

at upper floors by steel-framed passages linking St Roques

and Dens Street Mills) with 2 large engine house windows

at W and projecting soil chute. Mansard slate roof with

original ornate ventilators.

Small lodge, with later 1st floor, and retaining boundary

wall along Constable Street and St Roques Lane, 1889.

Interiors of Dens Street, Bell and St Roques Mills

fireproof with 2 rows of cast-iron columns carrying

cast-iron beams, wrought-iron ties and brick arches. Fine

cast-iron gothic roofs on clustered columns. Original

stairs, cast-iron doors etc. North Mill concrete floors on

tubular steel columns, but with similar spans to

iron-framed mills.

Statement of Special Interest

The earliest Baxter mills were built here in 1822 and 1826,

replaced in 1865-6. St Roques Mill was acquired in 1888

from W R Morison, also of Wallace Works, rebuilt internally

and given a mansard cast-iron roof by Baxters.

The single storey canteen, now sports club, with asbestos

tile roof, and the remaining brick structures in the

courtyard are excluded from the list.

References

Bibliography

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