Building record 2608/52 - Paradise Mills

<1> Historic England, From 2015, Notification of inclusion, amendment or removal from the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, Ellis V, 22/02/2016 (Written Communication). SCH7787.

Cheshire silk mills like Lower Paradise Mill (tall, narrow, buildings constructed with load bearing walls, their width restricted to the span of the wooden beams supporting their wooden floors) were among the earliest multi-storeyed spinning mills, from the early eighteenth century Lower Paradise Mill is on the List as a good example of this type of mill. It is of particular interest as the last mill in Macclesfield where hand-loom weaving took place (as late as 1981), and for the survival of a number of hand looms in the attic, with Jacquard machines attached for creating ‘programmable’ patterns. No other Jacquard machines and hand looms are thought to survive where they were worked. The mill is however relatively late in date and architecturally plain when compared with some others of the type. The survival of features such as the design suite, the Directors’ office, and probable timbers from the eighteenth century predecessor mill, supports the special interest, but there has also been some loss, notably of the power suite, and replacement of features like windows and the staircase.

<2> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 391073 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Upper Paradise Mill: Silk mill built 1822-4. Brick with Welsh slate roof, internal structure of timber beams carried on cast-iron columns (renewed with RSJs). 5 storeys, 8-window range with segmentally-arched entry to rear yard to left, the doorway immediately to its right. Windows renewed in original openings with flat-arched heads and stone sills. Moulded guttering at eaves. Privy tower and unlit elliptical stair tower project from rear. (see 3).

<3> Calladine A & Fricker J, 1993, East Cheshire Textile Mills, p.77, 80 & 108 (Book). SCH1093.

Hand weaving using Jacquard looms continued at Paradise Mill until 1981. Hooton and Hocknell, cotton manufacturers, occupied part of the mill from in 1867 and purchased it in 1870.

<4> Ashmore, O, 1982, The Industrial Archaeology of North West England, p.45 (Book). SCH3181.

Early nineteenth century mills, four and five storeys, partly with timber structure, partly with cast iron pillars and timber beans. Taken over by Cartwright and Sheldon in the 1920s and still used for silk waeving. The top floor was used for hand-loom weaving until recently.

<5> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards R, 17/09/2015 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The mills now house office space and a museum of mill life in the 1930s. Amongst its collection twenty-six restored Jacquard looms.

<6> Ordnance Survey, 1873-4, Metric Ten Foot Scale Town Plan of Macclesfield (Maps and Plans). SCH4489.

A detailed depiction of both mills including the boiler and engine houses.

<7> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1279976 (Web Site). SCH6528.

A cotton mill stood on this site by at least 1791, and by 1824 the adjacent Upper mill (qv) had been built. In 1862 John Bagshaw, a Manchester cotton manufacturer, bought the land and replaced the C18 mill with Lower mill. The mill was rented to silk manufacturers and to cotton manufacturers David Hooton and John Hockenhull, who bought it in 1870. The OS map surveyed 1871-2 shows both C19 mills (but not named), separated by an entry, and with a small outshut to the N which appears not to have been full height as its removal has left no scar on the gable above the now-attached Sunday school. By this date the block attached to the NE corner of the mill (marked on an early C20 plan as containing the engine, boiler and chimney) had also been built, presumably replacing an earlier power suite for Upper mill. The yard between the mill and the engine & boiler house was subsequently infilled with a three-storey concrete-framed flat-roofed extension, and the chimney has been truncated at eaves level.

The current forecourt was in the 1870s a triangle of land separated from the mill by a ginnel, with buildings between the ginnel and Park Lane. By the 1896/7 survey, the buildings to the front had been cleared, and the adjacent chapel built. Lower and Upper Paradise Mills were now shown as a single block; this may date the three-bay tower which houses the current entrance and stair, although it appears to be integral to the construction of Lower mill and the step in the front elevation is never marked on any historic map, so it might be original. Lower mill’s original spiral staircase was replaced in 1949, probably with the existing concrete stair*. James Kershaw rented rooms in the mill in 1880, at which time 'He produced nothing but new style, and in less than six months had at least 100 looms in full work', using new modern machinery. By 1891 the mills were exclusively used for silk manufacturing. The firm of Cartwright and Sheldon rented room in the mill from 1912, and acquired it in 1920. As well as having old looms repaired and new ones made, they bought six second-hand looms and Jacquard machines from J & F Jackson of Sutton Mills in Macclesfield. By the 1930s some 70 looms were in use on the top floor of Lower Paradise Mill, where there is sufficient headroom in the roof space. Hand weaving using Jacquards continued on this site until 1981, after which the attic became a museum.

A four-storeyed, thirteen-window range, with the three right-hand bays projecting and housing an entrance and staircase. A three-storey infill rear extension connects with an engine and boiler house and a square chimney in the NE corner. In the SE corner the two southernmost bays are not full depth but slightly recessed. It has an unusual double-pile roof.

The mill is built of red brick in English Garden Wall bond, variable but predominantly with headers every sixth course. Windows have been renewed throughout but the original openings are intact with segmental-arched brick heads and stone sills. The entrance is at the far right, with a c1930 surround in artificial stone. The roof is concealed by a parapet with alternate stone copings raised by a single course of bricks and slightly overlapping their lower neighbours. A fire escape has been added spanning bays 1-3, and a porch added to an inserted ground-floor opening in bay 3. The entrance block has been raised a storey in the right hand two bays, in a different brick with windows aligned with those below, and at the extreme right by another blank storey housing lift gear. The left hand return is abutted by the adjacent single storey Sunday school; behind the ridge of its roof is a now-infilled central first floor window opening. Other than inserted openings to the left at ground and first floor, the gable is blank and flat-topped at the level of the ridge of the two roofs. The E wall is abutted by buildings and a monopitch roof slopes back from this to the infill extension; the concrete frame of the extension rises above this to second floor, with a brick parapet. Raking concrete struts run to the flat roof from posts and an eaves-rail fixed to the third floor wall of the mill, which has no parapet on this elevation. To the left of the windows adjacent to the extension is a blank bay before the wall steps back; on the return are smaller windows, suggesting this was the original location of sanitary facilities. The roofs are hipped at the S end, with clay ridge tiles and some lead hips and valleys, and numerous rooflights. The S elevation abuts Upper mill at the left and at the right are inserted windows with timber cladding between them.

The internal structure is of timber beams carried on a central row of slender circular cast-iron columns 22ft (6.7m) from the walls, and a roof spanned by trusses with king posts either side of a central valley, with struts. The columns are fixed via metal shoes bolted to the underside of the beams, and via metal footplates resting on the beam below, abutted by floorboards. The attic has the most interest; here the roof timbers are all exposed, as is the underside of the cast iron valley gutter. About 20 looms with Jacquard machines attached above are fixed to the floor and roof via a timber framework, and various other machines for winding, spooling and other functions are also installed. At the S end the design office has been altered for the museum use but survives well with its glazed tongue-and-groove partition. In the SE corner is the Directors’ office which is lined with tongue-and-groove and retains historic furniture including a desk and a safe. Adjacent to this is the ‘National’ time clock for punching in and out. At second floor the beams are boxed-in and tension rods have been added to the underside, fixed by shoes bolted into the sides of the beam at the ends and either side of the columns. The first-and-ground-floor beams are exposed. Nearly all of the structural timbers are hewn, and various notches and mortices indicate that some have been reused, possibly from the C18 mill. The boiler and engine house has been heavily altered but there are traces of power transmission including bearing-boxes in walls and some possible line-shaft hangers.