| Summary : Queen Street Mill, a late 19th/20th century textile weaving mill located in Harle Syke, Burnley, at the corner of Queen Street and Harrison Street. The mill, which opened as a workers co-operative in 1895, is of stone construction with a slate roof and is powered by a 500 HP tandem compound steam engine known as 'Peace'. At its peak the mill contained over 1000 looms which generally produced plain calico cloth often used as a base cloth for printed cottons. The mill ceased production in 1982 and opened as a museum in 1986. The main mill building or weaving shed has modern internal subdivisions with original features located along its eastern side. These include the tape sizing plant where cotton warp yarns were coated with a starch solution to strengthen them for weaving; two tape sizing machines made by Howard & Bullough of Accrington remain in situ. Adjacent are Schweiter automatic winders for winding weft yarns onto the pirns which go into shuttles for weaving. Other rooms along the eastern side of the mill include the drawing-in room, the despatch room, and the warehouse where the cloth was checked and plaited or folded on plaiting machines made by Whites of Colne prior to despatch. The subdivided weaving shed currently houses 308 lightweight Lancashire looms made by the Burnley loom-makers Pemberton and Harling & Todd. At the south east corner of the mill building is the power unit comprising boiler house, engine house and chimney. The boiler house contains two coal-fired Lancashire boilers, while at the back of the boiler house there is a Green's vertical tube economiser. Adjacent to the boiler house is the engine hall within which is the engine 'Peace', originally built by Roberts of Nelson in 1894. To the south of the power unit there is a state-roofed stone and brick-built structure which originally functioned as the mill stables and behind this is the water-filled mill lodge or reservoir. |
More information : (SD 868349) Mill (NAT) (1)
SD 868349. Queen Street Mill, Briercliffe is one of the very few working steam-driven mills in the North West and comprises a large single-storey north-light weaving shed on the west, a two-storey preparation and storage block on the east and a tall circular brick chimney. The weaving looms are driven by a tandem compound horizontal steam engine by William Roberts of Nelson, 1895.
Furnace with a detached brick chimney to the west. (2)(3)
SD 868 349. Queen Street Mill engine. Scheduled No LA/190. (4)
Queen Street Mill in Harle Syke was built by a village co-operative in 1894. The share capital was £20,000, and there were 4,000 shares issued at £5 each. The mill was powered originally by a tandem compound horizontal steam engine, with a 14ft flywheel, supplied by William Roberts of Nelson in 1895. A serious fire at the mill in 1918 resulted in the reduction of the four-storey mill to a single storey. The ground floor was the weft place, the second floor was the warehouse, the third floor was winding and beaming, and the top floor was taping and twisting. Approximately 100 looms were taken out of what was previously called the parlour, and this became the warehouse. The remainder of the ground floor became winding and preparation. This left 1,040 looms, each tackler having 130 looms. In 1961 the mill was still operated by the Queen Street Manufacturing Company Ltd (1894), operating 828 looms to produce printers, limbrics, haircords, cable cloths and shirtings. The mill closed in 1982, but has since been turned into The Museum of the Lancashire Textiles Industry, and the engine is still run regularly to power a bank of looms in the weaving shed, producing a small range of cotton products for sale to visitors. The engine is a tandem compound steam engine of 1914, built from salvaged parts of the original engine of 1895, and housed in a compact engine room sandwiched between the boiler house and weaving shed. It now powers circa 350-400 looms by direct drive. Its cylinders are 16 in and 32 in by 4ft and it has a 14ft flywheel and 130psi. When the mill was originally constructed, the engine had 350hp and was named 'Prudence'. In 1914, at the time the mill was extended, the engine was given bigger cylinders, the stroke lengthened and transferred to Corliss valves. The resulting engine was upgraded to 500hp and was renamed 'Peace'. The engine house has long, round-headed windows in the west and east walls, the former partly blocked with a drainpipe running diagonally across it on the outside. There are four round-headed windows in the south wall. The boiler house to the south of the engine house contains two boilers, the original one of 1895 and a later one which is in working order, made by Tinker, Shenton and Company Ltd of Hyde. There have been considerable repairs to the roof, flues etc. and a water tank made of iron plates is housed on top. The red-brick chimney immediately to the west of the engine and boiler houses has had the top 7m rebuilt and is reinforced with metal strapping. It bears the words 'Queen Street Mill'. (5)
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