| Abstract: |
The historic building recording work and structural watching brief were conducted in line with the WYAAS specification (2019) and Method Statement (Wessex Archaeology 2020), creating a permanent record of the buildings at Stonebridge Mills ahead of, and during, redevelopment works.The aim or purpose of the historic building record (in line with the CIfA Standard and guidance for archaeological investigation and recording of standing buildings or structures, Historic England’s Understanding Historic Buildings: a guide to good practice and WYAAS’s Specification for Photographic Building Recording and Structural Watching Brief at Stonebridge Mills, Stonebridge Lane, Leeds) was to: identify and objectively record by means of photographs and annotated plans any significant evidence for the original and subsequent historical form and functions of Stonebridge Mill.In order to meet the aims of the recording exercise, the mill complex was assessed as an integrated system intended to perform a specialised function. Particular attention was made in reconstructing as far as possible the functional arrangements and division of the buildings. The roles of historical plan form, technical layout/ layout and circulation/process flow were considered in this process of interpretation, as well as the provision of power for processes.Specific tasks included: producing a definitive phase of the mill’s development based on the physical remains, site history and observations made during the recording process; to identify and record the use of materials throughout the existing site, in particular any early uses of cast iron columns in the mill’s structure; to record the beam engine house; to identify and record any evidence and locations of at least two engines (and an early engine in the Old Mill); to identify and record the transmission of power throughout the site and how this evolved as the mill developed; and to record all the surviving buildings to an appropriate level, including early workshops, mills, warehouses, and offices. Stonebridge Mills comprises a large, evolved, integrated mill site which operated for the production of woollen, and later woollen and worsted, cloth. The phasing of the site is complex, and further complicated by multiple phases of progressive rebuild, replacement, repair, and alteration. As a consequence, it is not always clear to which ‘phase’ a building, or part therefore, ought to be allocated.The earliest elements of the site were constructed around the turn of the 19th century, and were certainly present by 1805. Early powered processes were limited to fulling, carding, and scribbling, which were undertaken solely within the Old Mill, Building 10. At that time, it appears that the mill housed an internal engine, within its southwestern two bays. Ancillary buildings, many since lost, rebuilt, and significantly altered, served for hand spinning and weaving, burling, warehousing, offices, and dwellings.The rate of industrial advance necessitated a rapid early expansion within the site, and a continuous move to greater automation. By 1846, a new engine house had been constructed, along with a new boiler house and coke store, workers cottages, offices, and warehousing. Between 1846 and 1893, following the development of powered spinning and weaving technologies, the mill more than doubled in size. Likely during the 1860s, a new mill building for powered spinning was constructed perpendicular to the old mill (Building 9), a new beam engine was installed within the engine house to manage the increase in powered processes, and the boiler house revamped in turn, shortly followed by the construction of the site’s first powered weaving shed (Building 15). |
