Description

REDDITCH B PROSPECT HILL (east side)
SP 0468 SW

10/139 British Mills and No 80
(formerly listed as separate
11.8.75 items)

- II

Includes No 1 and mill buildings adjoining to east Albert Street (north side).
Needle and fish-hook factory with adjoining house, built for Samuel Thomas,
the factory owner; now divided into offices and small factory units. c1840,
with mid-C20 alterations. Stuccoed brick with shallow-pitched, hipped slate
roofs behind parapets. Part two storeys, part three storeys; banded rustica-
tion at ground floor level rising to moulded cornice or sill band at first
floor level, and moulded eaves cornices. No 80: two storeys; three bays,
central bay breaks forward and the parapet above has a shallow gable. Windows
are all 12-pane sashes. Central entrance has a Distyle Doric portico with
fluted columns; door has a moulded architrave, panelled reveals, half-glazed
double doors and a transom light with two glazing bars. To rear right of
No 80, behind a forecourt, extends a factory wing of three storeys and four
bays; central two bays break forward and "the parapet above has a shallow
gable; windows are 16-pane sashes on the ground and first floor and 8-pane
sashes on the second floor. Two central ground floor bays occupied by semi-
circular headed archway to which the rustication bands form "voussoirs".
Between the first and second floor central windows is a circular moulding,
possibly for a clock face originally. The wing has a six-bay west return
which encloses the south side of the forecourt and its two-bay west end
faces the road; similar fenestration and detailing; at the east end is a
half-glazed door which has a transom light with three glazing bars. Adjoining,
and, slightly set back from the west end is an additional wing, of two storeys
and six irregularly spaced bays; the ground floor windows are all round-headed
sashes to which the rustication bands form voussoirs; six first floor 6-pane
sashes; main entrance in fourth bay has a moulded flat canopy and entablature
on large pilasters; the round-headed doorway has a moulded architrave, 4-
panelled door and plain fanlight; in the second bay is a large semi-circular
headed archway with similar voussoir detail to the ground floor windows;
above this second bay, on the roof ridge is a square lantern with four turned
posts, moulded cornice and ogee domical lead roof with weathervane. Adjoining
the north end of this wing, with its main front facing south, is No 1 Albert
Street: mid-C19; brick with blue brick and painted stone dressings; shallow-
pitched slate roof with large ridge and rear stacks; three storeys with
chamfered blue brick plinth band and painted stone first floor sill band;
moulded eaves cornice; four bays; windows have gauged flat heads; mainly
6-pane sashes; main entrance in second bay has a round-headed archway, C20
door and plain fanlight. Its west end is a single bay in depth and terminates
the main British Mills west frontage at the south end. British Mills was one
of the largest and most important needle mills in the centre of Redditch.
Samuel Thomas introduced pointing-machines and the fan for drawing away the
dust from the grinders' wheel at British Mills in 1843 and these methods soon
become widely accepted in the region. (VCH, 3 (i), p 274; Robert Glen,
Needlemakin and Urbanisation in the Redditch Area (1841-1881), Emmanuel
College Cambridge, Dissertation, January 1984).

Listing NGR: SP0424668082

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26584467

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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