Swan Meadow works welfare building, Eckersley Mills, Douglas, Wigan

Summary

A workers’ welfare building to a large integrated cotton manufacturing complex, of around 1918, of red brick with buff terracotta dressings in a neo-Classical style probably by Stott and Sons, for Eckersleys Ltd.

Description

A workers’ welfare building to a large integrated cotton manufacturing complex, of around 1918, probably by Stott and Sons, for Eckersleys Ltd.

MATERIALS: red ‘Accrington’ brick and common brick, with buff terracotta dressings, slate roofs, timber windows, steel roof trusses.

PLAN: comprising three adjoining elements, each aligned north-south; an aisled main hall to the west, with two smaller halls of unequal size to the east; the latter halls fronted by an east-west crush hall and with an east-west kitchen range to the rear.

EXTERIOR: forming a south-western component of an important group of cotton mills and associated structures on this site, which are collectively a very striking feature comprising a substantial part of the Wigan Pier Conservation Area.

The building is in a neo-Classical style and single-storey (of varied heights) with canted projecting plinth and hipped roofs. The principal façade faces south onto Fourteen Meadows Road. At the left the main hall is flanked by low three-bay aisles. The hall has a large Venetian window, tall square-headed windows in flanking bays with enriched terracotta panelling in the heads, a terracotta frieze and cornice, and a high parapet with central terracotta pediment containing a panel lettered ‘ECKERSLEYS LTD’. The aisles have square-headed windows with flat-arched brick heads and terracotta sills, that to the right with a very wide rectangular doorway in the third bay (in 2022, bricked up) with enriched terracotta surround including a panelled lintel lettered ‘HALL ENTRANCE’. To the right is a low seven-bay façade to the flat-roofed kitchen range, with tripartite windows (lower-silled in bay 1) and an entrance in bay 5 with enriched terracotta surround including a panelled lintel lettered ‘GOODS’ (all bricked up). Set back above are the walls of the taller dining halls, with central Diocletian windows (blocked) flanked by pilasters and lower wings; the eastern (men’s) hall being set further back.

The west wall is similarly-detailed and has a flat-roofed five-bay projection at the left with terracotta ‘EXIT’ door surround in bay five, which retains some of its doorway joinery with ‘x’ overlights.

The north wall is of similar configuration but mainly of common brick with Accrington-brick dressings and some terracotta, including a further ‘EXIT’ door surround to the rear of the main hall. The flat-roofed narthex at the east end forms the crush hall to the dining halls, and has a wide terracotta surround labelled ‘WOMENS DINING HALL’ and a number of blocked windows; at the left it is set back, as is the men’s dining hall façade above. The entrance to this is on the east wall, with a similar surround to the women’s entrance, but narrower. To the left is an inserted modern entrance. The east wall of the kitchen has a projecting chimney breast with terracotta shoulders and cap to the stack. The roofs are partially covered by felt and bitumen.

INTERIOR: the circulation areas have modern finishes, the main and central halls contain a modern roller-skating floor and associated fittings and the east hall has an inserted ceiling and modern café fittings. However the planform remains legible through the exposed roof structures. The main roof retains its ribbed, barrel-vaulted ceiling with decorative corbels and ventilation grilles and the aisles and small halls also retain some original roof linings of lath and plaster and timber.

History

The Swan Meadow mills workers’ welfare building was built probably around 1918 following the late-C19 westward expansion of the existing works of James Eckersley and Sons, which had been founded in 1823. The three western mills (National Heritage List for England – NHLE entries 1384527, 1384528 and 1384529) were built between 1884 and 1900 for a separate company called ffarington Eckersley and Co Ltd (which merged with James Eckersley in 1900 to form Eckersleys Cotton Trust, known from 1918 as Eckersleys Ltd).
The complex was further expanded with an office block (1904, extended with a north-light winding room in 1912 – NHLE 1384531) and a western weaving shed extension to number 1 mill (1905, extended to the north in 1906 with a two-storey ‘new’ reeling and winding block). The workers’ welfare building was the final element, built to the south of number 2 mill. It does not appear on the 1908 Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:2,500 map of 1908, but does appear on the revision of 1929, which was surveyed in 1927. Its style suggests a date early after the First World War.

Eckersleys’ colossal works were, at the height of production in the 1920s, one of the largest integrated textile manufactories in the country, operating more than 250,000 spindles and 1,650 looms in 6 spinning and 2 weaving mills on a site of approximately 51,000 sqm, and employing 3,000 people, around 95% of whom were women. The firm operated here until 1968. James and Nathaniel Eckersley also built several streets of houses (now demolished) and the Church of SS James and Thomas (NHLE 1384468) in nearby Poolstock for their workers.

Unusually, as well as the mills, from the late-C19 the site accommodated allotment gardens, and (after the First World War) bowling greens and other sports grounds. The hall’s external access suggests use by workers out of working hours, as well as the lunchtime concerts for which it is chiefly remembered.

The western expansion of the site was specifically designed for spinning using ring frames rather than mules or throstle frames. The predominance of women in the available workforce (with Wigan’s coal-mining employing many men) probably drove the early adoption here of this improved technology; ring frames were more usable than mules by women, and in the decades before 1914, ring-spinning almost exclusively a female occupation. The C19 textile industry consistently employed around 60 per cent women overall, and in cotton weaving, but fewer men were employed in weaving where other ‘men’s work’ was available, as was the case here; Eckersleys’ workforce was remarkably female-dominated. The welfare building illustrates this in particular through the much wider and more prominently-sited women’s dining hall entrance compared with the men’s entrance. It is not clear exactly how the interior was segregated, but the location of the entrances suggests that the east hall served the men, and that the two larger halls (one of which is nearly six times larger) served the female work force.

The building was listed in 1994 after the glazed partitions between the halls and the northern balcony of the main hall had been removed, and is relatively little-altered since then. The complex’s early mills were largely demolished in the 1960s as part of a rationalisation programme, and their site partially developed in the late-C20 as an industrial estate.

AH Stott and Sons of Oldham was a practice of engineering architects responsible for designing around 20% of all new cotton spinning mills in Lancashire between 1880 and 1914. The partners also became directors and shareholders in several mill-building companies (known as ‘the limiteds’) which in the later-C19 and early-C20 were the principal builders of new mills.

Reasons for Listing

Swan Meadow works welfare building, a workers’ welfare building to a large integrated cotton manufacturing complex, of around 1918, probably by Stott and Sons, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a relatively rare, early and elaborate example of purpose-built dining provision at a cotton mill, and particularly rare in also providing a large entertainment hall;

* it has good neo-Classical detailing in buff terracotta and its internal plan form remains largely legible;

* it was designed for an almost entirely female workforce, which is reflected architecturally in the provision of larger spaces for the female workers and a more prominent entrance.

Historic interest:

* together with the other surviving historic buildings on the site it expresses the firm’s substantial late-C19 and early-C20 investment and expansion that created one of the largest integrated textile production sites in the country.

Group value:

* it is a key component of Eckersleys’ Swan Meadow works and has strong visual, functional and contextual group value with the three extant mills and the gatehouse, office and winding block.

External Links

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