Weaving shed

Reliable power looms that could be worked from an overhead line shaft were not available before Kenworthy and Bulloughs weft stop motion, the roller temple and the loose reed which appeared in the 1840s.

[4] The looms were powered by leather belts from overhead cross-shafts, on bevel gears from the line shaft that ran the length of the shed.

[4] The completed pieces would be cut off the loom, (it was on a takeup beam), and this left the shed to go back to the warehouse where it would be examined for faults by the cloth looker, and if it was of satisfactory quality, folded and forwarded to the client.

[12] The early weaving sheds were simple working industrial buildings and the external materials generally used in their construction are robust and there was little in the way of ornamentation.

Internal materials comprised stone flag floors, exposed cast iron structure, timber joinery and boarded partitions and lime plaster on lath soffits to the south facing roof slopes.

[16] The cast iron beams that support these rows of north lights are ingeniously designed as inverted channel sections such that they both carry the load of the roofs and act as rainwater gutters.

[13] Cast iron tie rods running from the columnheads, at right angles to the gutterbeams, gave lateral rigidity.

Though the North Light Roof Shed predominated in Lancashire and Yorkshire, there were always variations caused by local needs.

Flat roofs on vaults with monitor lights were chosen in Italy, parts of the United States and India because they helped to reduce the heat.

The Tonnendach mills of central and northern Europe, used a curved broad span with raised transverse rooflights, a system patented by Sequin-Brunner of Switzerland in 1885.

There are successful schemes which convert the shed into covered parking, and divided retail space, offices and business start up units.

When part of the centre is opened up to form an inner court, the bays round the edge have been converted into a primary school, residential units and student accommodation.