Mather Lane Mill
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Flickr_-_ronsaunders47_-_LEEDS-LIVERPOOL_CANAL_%40_LEIGH._13.jpg/250px-Flickr_-_ronsaunders47_-_LEEDS-LIVERPOOL_CANAL_%40_LEIGH._13.jpg)
Mather Lane Mills was a complex of cotton mills built by the Bridgewater Canal in Bedford, Leigh in Lancashire, England. The No 2 mill and its former warehouse are grade II listed buildings.
History
The Mather Lane Company was formed at a meeting in the Black Horse public house in Leigh. Thomas Smith, a self-educated man was voted to the chair and Richard Thomas Marsh became its managing director from its inception until 1920. The first mill's working capital was £60,000 when it became operational in 1878. A second mill opened in 1883 and the third in 1891. In the 1920s the company was merged into Combined Egyptian Mills Ltd.[1]
Architecture
The second Mather Lane Mill is a Grade II listed cotton spinning mill on the north bank of the Bridgewater Canal. It was built in 1882 to the designs of Bradshaw and Gass of Bolton and is notable for its severe classical elevations. It is an important early factory design by the architects and has features unusual for its date including a square plan, flat roof and its partly internal engine house. The mill has six storeys and a basement built in brick in English garden wall bond with panelled pilasters at the corners. Three-storey carding sheds on the south side are parallel to the canal and set obliquely to main mill. Its engine house is on the north side and its tower at the north-west corner is panelled with moulded string courses. The tower rises above parapet level where there are large lunettes below a blind arcade of round-headed arches, parapet and it has a pyramidal roof.[2]
The mill's six by ten bays contain iron-framed windows. The east and west elevations have large windows with continuous central iron box columns rising through the first to fourth floors. The north and south elevations have single-light windows. Inside the ceilings are supported by iron girders on Tuscan columns.[2]
Mill No 2, was redeveloped in the early 2020s by JP McGuire Developments in 98 one, two and three bedroom apartments called Loom Wharf. It forms a modern residential complex, utilising the former cotton stores in the basement as car parking, seven levels of luxury apartments and state of the art gym facilities.[3]
Mill No 3, also known as Brooklands Mill, was constructed on the opposite (south) side of the Bridgewater Canal.
Warehouse
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Mather_Lane_Bridge_1976_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1766348.jpg/220px-Mather_Lane_Bridge_1976_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1766348.jpg)
The mill's former warehouse on the opposite side of Mather Lane is also grade II listed. It was built around 1882, probably also to designs by Bradshaw and Gass. It is a plain brick structure with three storeys overlooking the canal. It has hoists and taking-in bays on the front and canal elevations.[4]
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Lunn 1958, p. 268
- ^ a b Historic England, "Mather Lane Mill (1356246)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 20 February 2016
- ^ "Success for former mill £13m apartment development with private cinema and gym". 21 August 2019.
- ^ Historic England, "Former warehouse immediately north west of Dick Mather Bridge, Mather Lane (1261878)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 20 February 2016
Bibliography
- Lunn, John (1958), History of Leigh, Leigh Borough Council
53°29′35″N 2°30′32″W / 53.493°N 2.509°W / 53.493; -2.509
External links
Hall Lane and Mather Lane Cotton Spinning Mills, Leigh, 1929 from Britain from above
- v
- t
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/Hermann_Sondermann_Familie_mit_Frau_am_Spinnrad_detail.jpg/80px-Hermann_Sondermann_Familie_mit_Frau_am_Spinnrad_detail.jpg)
- Daniel Adamson
- Ashton Frost
- Ashworth & Parker
- Bateman & Sherratt
- Boulton & Watt
- Browett, Lindley & Co
- Buckley & Taylor
- Carels Frères
- Clayton, Goodfellow & Co
- Earnshaw & Holt
- Fairbairn
- W & J Galloway & Sons
- Benjamin Goodfellow
- B. Hick and Sons / Hick, Hargreaves & Co
- John Musgrave & Sons
- J & W McNaught
- Petrie of Rochdale
- William Roberts & Co of Nelson
- George Saxon
- Scott & Hodgson
- Urmson & Thompson
- Yates & Thom / Yates of Blackburn
- Willans & Robinson
- J & E Wood
- Woolstenhulmes & Rye
- Brooks & Doxey
- Butterworth & Dickinson
- Curtis, Parr & Walton
- Dobson & Barlow
- John Hetherington & Sons
- Joseph Hibbert
- John Pilling and Sons
- Harling & Todd
- Howard & Bullough
- Geo. Hattersley
- Asa Lees
- Mather & Platt
- Parr, Curtis & Madely
- British Northrop Loom Co
- Pemberton & Co
- Platt Brothers
- Taylor, Lang & Co
- Textile Machinery Makers
- Tweedales & Smalley
- T. Wildman & Sons
- Elkanah Armitage
- Henry Ashworth
- Hugh Birley
- Hugh Hornby Birley
- Joseph Brotherton
- James Burton
- Peter Drinkwater
- Nathaniel Eckersley
- John Fielden
- William Gray
- Hannah Greg
- Samuel Greg
- Richard Howarth
- William Houldsworth
- John Kennedy
- George Augustus Lee
- Charles Macintosh
- Hugh Mason
- Samuel Oldknow
- Robert Peel
- John Rylands
- Thomas Whitehead and Brothers
- Oldham Limiteds
- Fine Spinners and Doublers
- Lancashire Cotton Corporation
- Bagley & Wright
- Combined Egyptian Mills
- Courtaulds
- James Burton & Sons
- Amalgamated Cotton Mills Trust
- Amalgamated Association of Beamers, Twisters and Drawers (Hand and Machine)
- Amalgamated Association of Operative Cotton Spinners
- Amalgamated Textile Warehousemen's Association
- Amalgamated Textile Workers' Union
- Amalgamated Weavers' Association
- Cardroom Amalgamation
- General Union of Lancashire and Yorkshire Warp Dressers' Association
- General Union of Loom Overlookers
- Lancashire Amalgamated Tape Sizers' Friendly Society
- North East Lancashire Amalgamated Weavers' Association
- Northern Counties Textile Trades Federation
- The Textile Institute
- United Textile Factory Workers' Association
- Richard Arkwright
- Samuel Crompton
- Peter Foxcroft
- James Hargreaves
- Thomas Highs
- John Kay (flying shuttle)
- John Kay (spinning frame)
- Robert Owen