Description
1828 former hand-loom factory: 2 parallel ranges of
2-storey rubble-built buildings and raw jute warehouses.
a. Blackscroft: 2-storey 11-bay block, 1828. Ground floor
loading bays fenestration altered. 1st floor 9 weavers'
windows to loom shop (now boardroom), modern glazing.
2 bays at W with ground floor door to gatekeepers house
with piended roof. Sash and case windows. Gabled E
elevation: 3 window 1st floor over tie plates.
Interior: brick arched ground floor on cast-iron beams.
Wooden 1st floor.
b. Constable Street, 1865 1-storey, attic and basement,
office, part with later shop front. Slate roof with later
piend-roofed and flat-roofed dormers.
c. Warehouse, 1828, 2-storey to Constable Street,
3-storey to yard at S. Loading doors at ground and 1st
floors. 5 blocked windows to N and S elevations of top
floor lit loom shop. Gabled slate roof.
Interior: floors altered. 2 lower storeys form rubble
walled warehouse. Top floor plastered walls and 12-pane
windows.
Two further warehouses with arched openings to Constable
Street, each with flanking windows, built 1891. The fall in ground
allows loading at two levels and despatch via sliding doors at
Blackscroft.
Statement of Special Interest
Feued in 1828 by William Halley, manufacturer.
Apparently an early example of iron-framing and, unusually,
evidence of hand weaving on upper floors.
Category upgraded from C(S) to B, June 2004.