Leigh Spinners or Leigh Mill is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

double cotton spinning mill in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

Leigh, Greater Manchester Leigh is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, on low-lying land northwest of Chat Moss. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, Leigh was originally the cen ...

, England.

History

A product of the last generation of cotton mill building, Leigh Spinners was designed by Bolton architects

Bradshaw, Gass & Hope Bradshaw Gass & Hope is an English architectural practice founded in 1862 by Jonas James Bradshaw (–1912). The style "Bradshaw Gass & Hope" was adopted after his death referring to the remaining partners John Bradshaw Gass and Arthur John Hope ...

for the Horrocks Company, and built in two phases. The east section comprising the six-storey mill, boiler house and chimney stack was built in 1913 and the matching west section was completed ten years later. One of the few

double mill A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ' ...

s to be completed, it is one of the most complete still standing in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

. Part of the factory is occupied by Leigh Spinners Ltd who have manufactured carpets since 1969 and since 2012, synthetic turf products for landscaping and sport. The building is in poor condition and considered to be at risk by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

. A charity, the Leigh Building Preservation Trust was formed to restore the steam engine and engine house. In September 2013 the charity was awarded a £75,000 grant to restore the steam engine and repair the engine house by Waste Recycling Environmental Limited, a heritage fund that protects buildings of historical importance. The charity was able to turn the engine in 2018 for the first time in many years. As at January 2019, the younger of the two mill buildings has had extensive roof repairs, allowing the Charity to advance the restoration of several floors. Sport England funding enabled the conversion of one floor to accommodate a Table Tennis Club, Martial Arts, Cheerleading, Archery and a gym, with a café and other facilities too. Further floors are now in development, with music studios and arts spaces already being established. In October 2020, Leigh Building Preservation Trust appointed former MP

Jo Platt Joanne Marie Platt (born 15 June 1973) is a British Labour and Co-operative politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leigh from 2017 to 2019. She served on the opposition front bench as a Shadow Cabinet Office Minister from 2 ...

, as the General Manager for the project, in order to develop existing services and introduce new ideas. Twelve months later, the building was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35-million injection into the government's

Culture Recovery Fund The Culture Recovery Fund is a grants programme issued by the UK Government as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund aims to financially support cultural organisations in England (such as theatres, museums, and music venues) which had bec ...

."Heritage and Craft Workers Across England Given a Helping Hand"
–

, 22 October 2021

Structure

The mill has a reinforced steel frame clad in red brick with buff-coloured brick bands and dressings. The six-storey blocks are ten

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

long and seven wide and have corner water towers. The water tower to the older 1913 block rises two stages above roof level and is topped with a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

. Both blocks have offices, an engine house and rope race towers. The mill has a single chimney and the 1923 boiler house contains a cross compound mill engine made by

Yates and Thom Yates & Thom Ltd, or Yates of Blackburn, was a British manufacturer of stationary steam engines and boilers at the Canal Ironworks, Blackburn, Lancashire, England. The company had its origins in a blacksmith's shop started by William Yates in ...

of Blackburn and once contained seven

Lancashire boiler A shell or flued boiler is an early and relatively simple form of boiler used to make steam, usually for the purpose of driving a steam engine. The design marked a transitional stage in boiler development, between the early haystack boilers and t ...

s. The mill ran more than 200,000

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

and 4,800 ring spindles and its spinning machinery was supplied by

Platt Brothers Platt Brothers, also known as Platt Bros & Co Ltd, was a British company based at Werneth in Oldham, North West England. The company manufactured textile machinery and were iron founders and colliery proprietors. By the end of the 19th century, ...

of Oldham.

References

Notes Bibliography * *

External links

* {{Buildings and structures in Wigan Borough Textile mills in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Cotton mills Cotton industry in England Buildings and structures in Leigh, Greater Manchester Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester Bradshaw, Gass & Hope buildings

History

Structure

See also

References

External links