Swan Lane Mills is a former

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Althou ...

complex in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

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 ...

. All three mills are

Grade II* listed buildings 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 ...

. The mills were designed by

Stott and Sons Stott and Sons was an architectural practice in Lancashire between 1847 and 1931. It specialised in cotton mills, designing 191 buildings of which 130 were mills or buildings related to the cotton industry. Abraham Henthorn Stott was born on 25 A ...

of Oldham. When completed, the

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 * ' ...

(Nos. 1 and 2) was the largest spinning mill in the world. It was granted Grade II* listed status on 26 April 1974. Number 3 Mill was separately listed as Grade II* on the same day.

History

Swan Lane Mills are typical of the final phase of cotton mill construction in Lancashire, of vast size and decorated with flamboyant

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

embellishments reflecting the industry's prominence and prosperity. The mill was planned as a double mill with a central boiler house and built in two phases. Swan Lane Number 1 Mill was built in 1902, and Number 2 Mill three years later. The double mill was built to contain 210,000 mule spindles. Number 3 Mill was built in 1915 and housed 120,000 mule spindles. Number 1 Mill spun fine counts using

Sea Island Cotton ''Gossypium barbadense'' (''gos-SIP-pee-um bar-ba-DEN-see'') is one of several species of cotton. It is in the mallow family. It has been cultivated since antiquity, but has been especially prized since a form with particularly long fibers was ...

and Number 2 Mill concentrated on medium counts using

Egyptian cotton ''Gossypium barbadense'' (''gos-SIP-pee-um bar-ba-DEN-see'') is one of several species of cotton. It is in the mallow family. It has been cultivated since antiquity, but has been especially prized since a form with particularly long fibers was ...

.The mill also had 250 carding and 200 drawing and roving frames.

Architecture

The mills are constructed in brick with yellow brick decoration. Both mills are of five storeys over a basement and were built in the same style with wide segmentally arched windows and flat concrete roofs. They have a yellow brick eaves band and a stone

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Reviv ...

led

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

. Their projecting stair towers have Italianate details and

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

s. The double engine house on the north-west side was built to power both mills. The rope race tower projects behind it. The mill chimney has been reduced in height but retains an emblem of a swan in white lettering. Its internal construction is of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

and brick arched ceilings. No.1 Mill is 25

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 ...

wide and five deep with a single storey and basement extension to its north side, possibly a

card room A cardroom or card room is a gaming establishment that exclusively offers card games for play by the public. The term poker room is used to describe a dedicated room in casinos that is dedicated to playing poker and in function is similar to a car ...

, but now used as a warehouse. No.2 Mill is 23 bays long and six deep. The mill's two-storey office block is attached next to the site entrance. Decorative entrance - geograph

No. 3 Mill of 1915 is brick built with stone dressings, rounded corners and a ridged slate roof. It is 23 bays long, 14 wide with segmentally headed windows and eight storeys high (six plus a double attic). It is possibly the tallest of the mule-spinning mills most of which were up to six storeys in height. Above the sixth storey is a cornice from where carved swans project at intervals and the arcaded attic has round windows to its upper storey. The south-west corner entrance has a panel with a carved swan above the doorway and accesses a staircase. The tower above it is

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the s ...

led above the fifth floor and has angle

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s. A two-storey extension houses the card room and warehouse. Its engine house, two bays wide and three deep, has round arched windows.

Power

George Saxon & Co George Saxon & Co was an English engineering company that manufactured stationary steam engines. It was based in the Openshaw district of Greater Manchester, Manchester. The company produced large steam-driven engines for power stations and la ...

supplied No. 1 Mill with a

cross compound engine A compound steam engine unit is a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. A typical arrangement for a compound engine is that the steam is first expanded in a high-pressure ''(HP)'' cylinder, then having given up h ...

(works number 352) in 1903. It developed 1300 hp, had 26 and 52 inch cylinders with a 5-foot stroke and its 26-foot

flywheel A flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy; a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, ass ...

powered the machinery via 35

ropes A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarly c ...

. In 1906 an identical engine was installed for No. 2 Mill. No. 3 Mill was powered by a 2000 hp vertical triple expansion engine also supplied by Saxons. It had a 25 feet diameter flywheel weighing 25 tons,

Corliss valve Corliss is both a surname and a given name. People Given name * Corliss Lamont (1902–1995), American philosopher, political activist, and philanthropist * C. C. Moseley (1894–1974), American aviator and aviation businessman * Corliss Palmer ( ...

s and 44 ropes. Steam was generated by ten

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 engines powered the entire mill complex until 1959 when motor-driven ring frames were installed but one engine continued to provide power for some processes in Nos. 1 and 2 Mills.

Popular culture

In 1983 Swan Lane Mills was featured in an episode of the documentary

Fred Fred may refer to: People * Fred (name), including a list of people and characters with the name Mononym * Fred (cartoonist) (1931–2013), pen name of Fred Othon Aristidès, French * Fred (footballer, born 1949) (1949–2022), Frederico Ro ...

, in which Fred Dibnah is hired to remove the decorative ornamental on top of the chimney by then the last decorative topped chimney in Bolton. He was paid £4000 (1982) for the work.

References

Notes Bibliography * * *

External links