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Description: Old Lane Mill or Rawson's Mill

Address: Old Lane Mill Old Lane Halifax West Yorkshire

Grade: IISTAR

Group detail: Old Lane (west side)

Full description:
Worsted mill. 1825-28. Built for James Ackroyd, and acquired by the Rawson family in 1836. Hammer dressed stone with ashlar dressings and corrugated asbestos roof. 6 storeys plus attic. L-plan. 15 by 5 windows, with projecting 4 window wing to right. Classical style. South front has to left a tall, segment headed, engine house window, with rusticated ashlar surround. To the right 9 windows on 3 floors, and above 11 windows on 3 further floors. Projecting office and stair wing to right, with a large loading entrance with rusticated ashlar surround, flanked by single blocked windows, above 4 windows to each of the 5 floors. This wing is topped by a plain pediment with a circular clock face. East front 5 windows, plus 2 windows. To the left 2 windows to each floor, to the right the 5 window gabled front has a central row of 7 loading doors, with 2 windows on eitherside, apart from the top floor in the gable which has single flanking windows. North front has 7 windows eitherside of the central projecting, canted latrine tower. Interior: has iron "fire proof" construction. 2 rows of circular iron columns support cast iron beams of parabolic web, parallel flange inverted "T" section design. These support shallow brick arches and stone flagged floors. The roof has 14 cast iron, arched trusses. Each truss is made up of 4 sections bolted together, and they support cast iron purlins and cast iron common rafters which are racked to support original wooden laths. The engine house occupies the full width of the mill, at the west end, with panelled reveal to the window and a decorative plaster ceiling. A large semi-circular recess once housed the large flywheel. This building is listed because it is the oldest and largest surviving example of a multi-storey, steam-powered, iron-framed textile mill in the important textile centre of Halifax, it is probably also the best preserved example for its date in Yorkshire.