Listed Building: RYKNELD MILL, BROOK STREET (1215910)

Large silk mill. c1808, c1817, 1825 with mid and late C19 additions. Built for Thomas Bridgett. Original complex comprised weaving mill, throwing mill, ribbon mill and engine house with boiler house and chimney. Front street range comprised counting house, manager's house and public house. Red brick with slate roofs. South mill, former ribbon mill, 8 storey with pedimented parapets at either end. 12 windows long and 4 windows wide, all cast iron with glazing bars. North mill, former throwing mill, 7 storey with hipped slate roof, 9 windows with 2 windows set back to south. Middle mill, former weaving mill, 12 window 5 storey wing linking this block to the south mill. Most of the windows are cast iron with glazing bars. Office wing to north, former counting house, manager's house and public house, 3 storey with painted segmental arched opening into internal courtyard with single plain sashes above, that to the first floor with stucco lintel. 4 window section to left built in two sections, the far section now rendered, with some glazing bar sashes, built as the original mill manager's house. To right 7 window section with a single blocked doorway and a boarded door. Top floor has 5 small plain sashes. In courtyard the former engine house, boiler house and the base of the brick hexagonal chimney stack. INTERIOR has wooden beams to middle mill with re-used cast iron columns inserted in late C19 to strengthen floors. South mill has fire-proof construction with iron framed floors and brick arches. This building may well be the earliest fire-proof silk mill in England.