Swan Meadow works office and winding block, Eckersley Mills, Douglas, Wigan

Summary

A gatehouse and office block of 1904 and winding block of 1912, to an integrated cotton manufacturing complex, of red brick and terracotta in Edwardian Baroque style probably by Stott and Sons, for Eckersleys Cotton Trust.

Description

An office block of 1904 and winding block of 1912, to an integrated cotton manufacturing complex, probably by Stott and Sons, for Eckersleys Cotton Trust.

MATERIALS: red ‘Accrington’ brick and common brick, with red terracotta dressings, slate roofs and timber windows, cast-iron columns and reinforced concrete beams to the winding block.

PLAN: comprising entrance and office range on a cranked plan alongside Swan Meadow Road, abutted by an irregular winding block to the north, aligned east-west and with a concave façade to Pottery Road.

EXTERIOR: forming the north-eastern 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 of two storeys in the Edwardian Baroque style with terracotta sill bands, cornice and parapet. The principal façade faces east onto Swan Meadow Road and is of 13 bays, comprising a 7-bay office range and 6-bay winding range. The office range to the left has a parapet with balustrades between two enriched gablets with niches in (from the left) bays 2 and 6, that are flanked by pilasters which continue down past the first-floor windows, with brick corbelling between them below the sill in the manner of an oriel window. At the left is a wide segmental-headed doorway with inserted window. The entrance in bay 7 has an elaborate terracotta architrave with panelled pilasters bearing consoles, frieze lettered ‘OFFICES’, concave cornice with egg-and-dart enrichment, and enriched, broken, elliptical pediment dated 1904. It retains its panelled timber doors. The cast-iron rainwater goods have hoppers also dated 1904. The ground-floor sill band carries decorative iron railings, and the ground-floor openings have a continuous drip mould. At the left the range also incorporates a large square gatepost with stone imposts and artstone cap. The roof retains a ridge ventilator and has a brick north gable.

The winding range to the right has a convex corner at the right and has a central Flemish gable with a diamond motif lettered ‘A/ 1912/ D’, which is flanked by recessed panels with lettering in relief reading ‘ECKERSLEYS’ and ‘LIMITED’. The left and right bays have similar ‘oriel-style’ detailing to that of the office range but to the parapet the pilasters flank inverted segmental arches rather than gables. The ground-floor windows retain decorative iron grilles. Apart from a small window above the entrance to the offices, all the windows are square-headed with lugged architraves incorporating triple key-blocks. The timber windows have dentilled wooden transoms and 3-pane upper lights.

The left return of the office range (facing south-east) is of five bays with similar detailing but with a true oriel window in the centre, two-pane upper window lights and mostly flat-arched windows to the ground floor; at the right is a segmental-arched doorway with inserted window. The end (south-west) and rear (north-west and west) are of common brick and relatively little-altered.

The north (Pottery Road) façade of the winding range is concave with a brick parapet, corbelled-brick cornice and concrete sills and six first-floor windows (not evenly spaced). Thirteen ground-floor windows have corbelled-brick lintels and decorative iron grilles. The right end bay has two narrow windows flanked by shorter windows, to each floor.

INTERIOR: the office range retains rich decoration including plasterwork, glazed wall tiles, mosaic floor, timber architraves and doors with Art Nouveau fittings, Lincrusta dadoes, and glazed timber screens. These are found across the first floor and rear staircase, including in the lavatories. There is some damage especially where a small fire occurred but the overall scheme survives well. The front staircase also retains its decorative balustrade. At the ground floor, there are quarry-tile chequered floors and some stone flooring, tiled dadoes and decorative plaster and timber. A former kitchen area also retains a Belfast sink and iron cooking range with tiled front. The winding range has a north-light roof to the first floor. The ground floor has cast-iron columns with steel and concrete beams. Some areas are concealed by modern commercial finishes.

History

The Swan Meadow mills office and winding block was built in 1904 and 1912, 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 by AH Stott and Sons 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). This office block on Swan Meadow Road was added after the mills, probably by the same architects, and extended with a north-light winding range along Pottery Road. The final element of the complex was a workers’ welfare building built around 1918, in the south-west of the site (NHLE 1384530).

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 (almost certainly mostly women). The firm operated here until 1968. 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, as well as the welfare building. 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.

The office and winding block was listed in 1994. It remains relatively little-altered since then although some internal fire damage is thought to post-date listing.

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 office and winding block, a gatehouse and office block of 1904 and winding block of 1912, to an integrated cotton manufacturing complex, probably by Stott and Sons, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a good example of a decorative entrance building to a textile mill site, in this case also incorporating an extension for textile processing, with the firm’s name, monogram and the dates of construction prominently displayed and good Edwardian Baroque detailing in terracotta;

* it retains much of its good-quality interior decorative fabric, including plasterwork, glazed wall tiles, mosaic, quarry-tiled and stone floors, timber architraves and doors with Art Nouveau fittings, embossed wallpaper, glazed timber screens, and wrought-iron stair balustrade.

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 workers’ welfare block.

External Links

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