Environmental Impact Assessment at shaw Lodge Mills Gas works, Shaw Lane, Halifax

In April 2006, ARCUS were commissioned by the architects Building Design Partnership Ltd to assess the historical significance of the buildings that comprise Shaw Lodge Mills, Shaw Lane, Halifax. This will form part of an Environmental Assessment. The site (centred on SE 0970 2400) is adjacent to the Huddersfield Road East Conservation Area. The document has been written as a result of both documentary and cartographic research, in association with site visits, where both the exterior and interiors of the buildings on the site were examined. The archive research and map regression analysis has established that the business John Holdsworth and Co. was established in 1822 at a different site, with land purchased at Shaw Lodge from 1825 for the construction of a new integrated textile mill. The location may have been influenced by the completion of the Hebble and Calder Canal providing a reliable and cheap supply of coal necessary to power the steam operated mill machinery. The mill buildings and warehouses were rapidly built between 1830 and the 1870s, when operations and output on the site were at their height. In 1866, the firm employed 3,000 workers. A prestigious suite of offices were constructed c.1865. Many historic features associated with the former operation of the mill buildings still remain, although they have been superseded by modern electrically powered machinery and working practices. This includes the dated (1830) cast-iron columns in the earliest mill, the entablature floor and associated features relating to the original double beam engine in the engine house, the subterranean network of power transmission shafts, and the unusual lightweight metal framed roof in the boiler house, dating to c.1855. The overall character of the site is impressive with a lack of modern external additions to the buildings and the historic surfaces are still largely intact, comprising stone setts, iron railings and boundary walls. Located adjacent to the Hebble Brook are the remains of the former Gas Plant built to supply coal gas for lighting the weaving sheds and mill buildings. Although partially demolished, the retort benches and gas holders are still in-situ and have been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM 1288). It has been concluded that many of the buildings are of high regional significance, and although internal alterations have occurred, when considered as an integrated complex are a good example of one of the largest surviving mid-nineteenth-century worsted mills in the country. The gas works at Shaw Lodge Mills is an example of a small, privately owned gas plant, used to produce coal gas for lighting the mills. The first mill on the site was constructed in 1822 and it is possible that the original gas works was contemporary with this, although the first mention of a gas house was in a document of 1839. The works was shown on the 1852 OS map, when only one gas holder was shown. By 1855, two gas holders were in place, and a row of terraced mill-workers cottages had been built to the immediate south of the gas works. The layout of the buildings changed little until the early-twentieth century, although the older of the two gas holders was replaced between 1883 and 1894. The gas plant is recorded as having ceased working in 1922, relatively late for a small works, and the buildings appear to have been at least partially demolished by 1933. The cottages survived until the 1950s, but had been demolished by 1963. No further development took place on the site. The above-ground remains at the site consist of the two gas holder tanks, and the remains of the retort house. This includes three retort benches, with fireclay retorts, a very rare survival and possibly unique nationally. There are also standing remains of one of the cottages and possibly some of the other gas works structures.