Low Mill
Cotton Worsted | |
---|---|
Current status | Derelict |
Location | Gresley Road, Keighley, West Yorkshire, England |
Coordinates | 53°51′58″N 1°54′04″W / 53.866°N 1.901°W |
Construction | |
Built | 1776 |
Completed | 1780 |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Designated | 12 February 1979 |
Reference no. | 1200162 |
Low Mill is a former textile mill in
History
Building of the mill was started in 1776 by Thomas Ramsden, but it was completed in 1780 by the Clayton Brothers.[1] It was opened in 1780, and was the first industrial building in Keighley, whilst also being the first purpose built cotton-spinning mill in Yorkshire.[2][3] Initially, the mill was powered by a waterwheel, using the adjacent River Worth, but the opening of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1773, greatly increased importation of coal into Keighley, and the mill eventually became steam powered.[4]
To generate enough water pressure to power the mill-wheel, a large dam covering 2 acres (0.81 ha) was built which was fed by a mill-race (goit). A weir, some 200 yards (180 m) upstream, near to where North Beck enters the river, was built to feed the mill-race.[5] This proved problematic for other mills downstream, most notably Dalton Mills further downstream, who had a long-standing argument over the amount of water being diverted into Low Mill.[6]
The cotton-spinning equipment was built under the direction of
Details
The mill was built on a north–south axis and had three storeys.[13] Originally, the mill building was part of a larger site, however, the rest of the site has been levelled, with only the listed Low Mill structure left standing.[3] The area of derelict land which the mill sits in covers 0.8 acres (0.32 ha), and the combined mill floor-space is 6,230 square feet (579 m2).[14] Low Mill is a grade II* listed building.[11] A steam engine was built in the mill c. 1785, not for processing cotton, but for returning discharged water from the mill race into the dam above the mill.[15]
Since 2015, the site has been listed on the Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register.[16] Sometime during the 21st century, the historic water features in and around the mill have been concreted over, with Historic England describing the concreting as "..[an] act of heritage crime."[17]
References
- ^ Knights, David (9 November 2017). "Low Mill in Keighley on sale for £250,000". Keighley News. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
- ISBN 0-9508448-3-7.
- ^ a b EOP 2016, p. 11.
- ISSN 0308-2199.
- ^ Shand, Alistair (21 December 2020). "MEMORY LANE: Proud history of a now-derelict Keighley cotton mill". Keighley News. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ EOP 2016, p. 12.
- ^ Young, Chris (15 December 2020). "Steel workshop could be built next to Grade-II listed mill in West Yorkshire". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
- OCLC 18499486.
- ^ Ingle 1997, p. 161.
- ^ Ingle 1997, p. 168.
- ^ a b Historic England. "Mill buildings at Low Mills (Grade II*) (1200162)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ^ Ingle 1997, p. 170.
- ^ "Low Mill, Keighley". catalogue.wyjs.org.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
- ^ EOP 2016, p. 54.
- ^ Ingle 1997, p. 169.
- ^ "Heritage at Risk Register, Yorkshire" (PDF). historicengland.org.uk. p. 87. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
- ISSN 0963-1496.
Sources
- Ingle, George (1997). Yorkshire cotton : the Yorkshire cotton industry, 1780-1835. Preston: Carnegie Pub. ISBN 1-85936-028-9.
- Engines of Prosperity: new uses for old mills (PDF). historicengland.org.uk (Report). 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2021.