Description and History of Site:-
A large mill site, which includes workers cottages and a reservoir. Adjacent to Wortley Beck. Several structures within the complex are listed, all grade II: (a) (a) 1255986: Pair of mill workers cottages, plus later cottage and time keeper's office, now house, c1830 and mid C19.
(b) 1255990: These workshops were built as the stores, weaving shop, shrinking room and stores, and hot press room with spinning rooms above, described in the 1819 Insurance Policy for Thomas Pawson the builder of Stonebridge Mills
(c) 1255991: Metre house and 2 mill workers cottages, c1830.
(d) 1255993: Fulling, carding and scribbling mill, with later engine house and boiler house, c1800, altered mid C19 and C20. Boiler house, attached to the south-west, mid C19 with drying rooms above. Beyond 2 lean-to buildings including an in built Wagon Boiler used as a Water Tank, plus a tall square stone chimney stack which served the engine house. The mills were established c1800 alongside Wortley Beck as a steam-powered woollen scribbling mill and fulling mill. By 1819 the mill was operating, either wholly or in part, as an integrated woollen factory. The main mill was for powered scribbling, carding and fulling; workshops for hand spinning and hand weaving; finishing shops including a cloth dryhouse; wool and cloth warehouses. The mills were extended during the 19th century with cottages for workers and post-1850s mills and sheds. By 1901 Fred Armitage Lodge, born in Yeadon in 1872, was a woollen cloth manufacturer, possibly working with his father, John Lodge. By 1911 Fred Lodge had taken over the business and had established the company as Fred A Lodge & Sons Ltd, worsted manufacturers, at Stone Bridge Mills where they remained until 2008. F A Lodge & Sons also operated at Winker Green Mill, Armley, for a number of years until 1952. In 2008 Stone Bridge Mills were for sale for re-development as a supermarket by Tesco - which in 2018 still has not happened. Cloth production had ceased in the late 1970s. Fred Armitage Lodge died in April 1953.
Further Reading and References:-Giles, C and Goodall, I H. Yorkshire textile mills: the buildings of the Yorkshire textile industry, 1770-1930. HMSO, 1992. Leach, P and Pevsner, N. Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North. The buildings of England. Yale, 2009.
Information from a member of the Lodge family, January 2018.
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Key Words :- textile carding spinning scribbling wool worsted mill
Viewing the Site :- Visible from road
Address :- Stonebridge Lane, Wortley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 4QN
Grid Ref :- SE 25513 32870
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.791524 , Long -1.614207
Local Authority :- Leeds Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Listed - Grade II
Historic England List No - 1255993,
Site Condition :- Site disused - but otherwise substantially intact
Site Dates :- c1800 -
Record Date :- 3 August 2016
Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © IHS Database
Grid Ref :- SE 25513 32870
Co-ordinates :- Lat 53.791524 , Long -1.614207
Local Authority :- Leeds Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - West Riding
Site Status :- Listed - Grade II
Historic England List No - 1255993,
Site Condition :- Site disused - but otherwise substantially intact
Site Dates :- c1800 -
Record Date :- 3 August 2016
Copyright :- cc-by-nc-sa 4.0 © IHS Database