Description and History of Site:-
Derelict, six storey mill building with attic, erected upon an L-shaped plan utilising fireproof construction with cast iron columns and beams supporting shallow arched floors paved with flagstone. Likewise the roof trusses are of cast iron, though now carrying what is left of a corrugated asbestos roof. The engine house was in-built and its windows are distinguished with rusticated quoins stones. A very important early, steam driven, fireproof mill, currently on Historic England's Buildings at Risk register. James Akroyd junior (1785-1836) established himself at Old Lane Old Mill q.v. (later the site of Lee Bank Mills), following his withdrawal from the partnership of James Akroyd & Sons in 1811 which had comprised his father, James Akroyd senior (1753-1830), himself, and his two brothers, Jonathan and Thomas, and operated from premises at Brookhouse, Bowling Dyke and Copley. James was very forward thinking in his ideas for the business and was keen to introduce new types of worsted cloth weaving into the Halifax area. Edward Baines records that James Akroyd was using power looms at Old Lane in 1822, and was also the first to introduce powered Jacquard weaving of worsteds there in March 1827.
At about the same time, James Akroyd junior, appears to have secured a new site just upstream of his existing premises in Old Lane, formerly part of the Old Lane Corn Mill. Utilising finance provided by W.H. Rawson, he erected a six-storey fireproof mill powered by a 60-horse power engine, completed in 1828. Although Giles and Goodall have concluded that the building was intended to house spinning, weaving and warehousing, Trigg writing in 1933, stated that a weaving shed was indeed erected on another part of the Old Lane Corn Mill site, but that by then part of the structure was already derelict and the remainder converted for use as a dye house. At any event, James Akroyd died in 1836, and the mill then passed into the hands of W.H. Rawson and later to those of Messrs. Bowman, cotton spinners. P.W.R.

Further Reading and References:-
Northowram Rating Valuation 1837.
W.B. Trigg, 'The Industrial Water Supply of Ovenden', Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, Halifax, 1933, pp. 159-160.
D.T. Jenkins, The West Riding Wool Textile Industry 1770-1835, A Study of Fixed Capital Formation, Pasold, Edlington, Wiltshire, 1975, p. 133.
E. Webster, 'Edward Akroyd (1810-1887) Also a Brief History of James Akroyd and Son', Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, Halifax, 1987, pp. 19-22.
C. Giles and I.H. Goodall, Yorkshire Textile Mills 1770-1930, HMSO London, 1992, p215/6.

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Key Words :- textile mill worsted cotton spinning doubling

Viewing the Site :- No public access, the site is derelict and potentially dangerous. The mill can most easily be viewed from Old Lane.

Address :- Old Lane, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX3 6TG
Grid Ref :- SE 08617 26341
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.733392 , Long -1.870857
Local Authority :- Calderdale Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Listed - Grade II*
Historic England List No - 1244144,
Site Condition :- Site derelict - some buildings remaining
Site Dates :- 1825-8 -
Record Date :- 3 August 2016

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