Summary

This structure is a single storeyed engine house, abutting the E end of Gibson Mill. The date of construction is uncertain.

Identification Images (0)

Most Recent Monitoring

None Recorded

Monument Types

Description

From NT VBS (1992)

"This structure is a single storeyed engine house, abutting the E end of Gibson Mill. The date of construction is uncertain. P.Thomas notes that steam power was not being used in 1833 when the Factories Inquiry Commission made their report. He asserts that the introduction of steam power coincided with weaving at the mill. This he dates to be after 1861, when the Gibson family re-established themselves on the premises. However, there is no certainty as to when steam power was introduced. Also, there is no reason why the engine house should not post-date the introduction of steam power. Initially the machinery could have been housed in the east extension of the main mill.

Although the 1851 OS first edition map is unclear, it does not seem to show this building. It is shown on the 1894 map.

Stylistically the building is datable to the MC/LC19. The stonework would not suggests that it is contemporary with the weaving shed. However, it is comparable to the stable. The engine house may be contemporary with the MC19 iron columns on the ground floor of the mill. Thus the engine house may have related to a major refurbishment of the mill. It is important to note that the introduction of steam power meant that the source of power was switched from the west end to the east end. This probably had implications for the organisation of the manufacturing process.

The engine house abuts the east end of the mill at an obtuse angle. In plan, it is a reversed and skewed left. The flank walls are not parallel. The walls are constructed of well coursed quarry dressed gritstone, with chisel drafted arrisses to the quoins. The original door in the south gable and the windows have chisel drafted margins to the quarry dressed surrounds. The south door and windows are internally splayed, the windows have sunken sills of flagstone. The interior of the mullion to the two light window on the east flank is corbelled towards the top. The mock C19 fixed wooden frames have small panes and date from the use of Gibson Mill as a film set.

In the north gable is an inserted C20 door. This displays sawn jambs and a concrete lintel. A door may have existed here in the C19. An EC20 photograph displays clear evidence that the north gable was rebuilt at that time. Both doors are of wooden planks with battens.

In the middle of the east flank is a blocked opening. This has pommel dressed gritstone surrounds. It has the dimensions of a window and is partially below the present ground level.

The interior of the engine house is sunken below the level of the mill and ground. Its plan consists of a pit in the central area with a raised platform at each gable end. Another platform has been built of rendered brick on the east flank. These platforms relate to the engine machinery that the building housed. There appear to be a number of phases in the development of this internal arrangement.

The west flank wall is formed by the gable of the mill. There is a blocked window in the mill privy. However there is no obvious entrance for the drive shafts into the mill. This may be because the steam engine would have been connected to the loom line shafts by drive ropes. These could enter the mill through the door to the line shaft mechanisms at the gable to the main portion of the mill. Such a development would be dated after 1860. In textile mills during the 1860s the drive shaft from the steam engine was replaced by drive ropes to the various floors of a mill (Cossons, N., 1987)"

References

Designations

None Recorded

Other Statuses and References

None Recorded

Associated Events

None Recorded

Associated Finds

None Recorded

Related Records