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Lilycroft Road, BRADFORD, BD9 5BE

Looking along Patent Street from Lilycroft Road towards the 250 ft high chimney at Lister Mills. The mill buildings were designed by Bradford architects Andrews and Pepper and replaced an earlier mill which burnt down in 1871. Lister Mills was once the world's biggest silk factory but production finally came to an end in 1992. Some of the buildings are now being converted into office units and apartments.

W. Cudworth's phrase, "stupendous manufacturing pile" sums it up nicely. An integrated silk mill comprising mostly of two huge parallel ranges, the warehouse (seen here) and spinning mill (Image]). The chimney is a city landmark. By Andrews & Pepper, 1870-73. Grade II* listed. Urban Splash began overseeing conversion to flats in 2004. So far they seem to have resisted the temptation to plaster the buildings in bright colours.

Close up of the former warehouse and (detached) chimney beyond. Modest Italianate decoration. Full view: Image

This is the south complex of Manningham Mills - sometimes referred to as Lister's Mill. Once the largest producer of silk in the world, not to mention it's manufacture of velvet, finally closed its doors in the early 1990s - and is now being converted into residences, business units and a community centre. The magnificent chimney can be seen from all over Bradford and beyond - rumour had it that the rim at the top was wide enough to take a coach and horses. Now a listed building. http://www.manninghammasterplan.co.uk/p-lister-mill.php

Converted to high quality apartments by Urban Splash. https://www.urbansplash.co.uk/regeneration/projects/lister-mills

Ordnance Survey cut mark benchmark described on the Bench Mark Database at www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm87119

The magnificent building in the background is a part of the converted Lister's Mill complex.

I believe this guano encrusted plant is now sadly a memory. It was a fascinating survivor of a brief period in the history of powering mills - between mill engines driving the machinery and electric motors powered by grid electricity. This was a set of 1930s mixed pressure, non-condensing turbines driving alternators and replaced a mixture of mill engines. In its day this was state of the art and I was really pleased to see it. I visited and photographed it following my finding a photo of it in Giles and Goodall (my favourite Yorkshire mills book). There were two turboalternators arranged end to end with the turbines towards the middle of the room and the alternators at the ends. They were by the General Electric Company although the turbines were essentially Fraser and Chalmers machines (GEC had taken that company over).

I believe this guano encrusted plant is now sadly a memory. It was a fascinating survivor of a brief period in the history of powering mills - between mill engines driving the machinery and electric motors powered by grid electricity. This was a set of 1930s mixed pressure, non-condensing turbines driving alternators and replaced a mixture of mill engines. In its day this was state of the art and I was really pleased to see it. I visited and photographed it following my finding a photo of it in Giles and Goodall (my favourite Yorkshire mills book). There were two turboalternators arranged end to end with the turbines towards the middle of the room and the alternators at the ends. They were by the General Electric Company although the turbines were essentially Fraser and Chalmers machines (GEC had taken that company over). This is a view on the turbine end of one set with the steam supply, stop valves, pass out valve, governor arrangement and tachometer all in view. The turbine was a single casing machine. The switchboard is seen on the right with the door in the right background providing access to the wiring. As the board was still live in part I resisted the temptation to explore behind it.

I believe this guano encrusted plant is now sadly a memory. It was a fascinating survivor of a brief period in the history of powering mills - between mill engines driving the machinery and electric motors powered by grid electricity. This was a set of 1930s mixed pressure, non-condensing turbines driving alternators and replaced a mixture of mill engines. In its day this was state of the art and I was really pleased to see it. I visited and photographed it following my finding a photo of it in Giles and Goodall (my favourite Yorkshire mills book). There were two turboalternators arranged end to end with the turbines towards the middle of the room and the alternators at the ends. They were by the General Electric Company although the turbines were essentially Fraser and Chalmers machines (GEC had taken that company over). This view shows a centrifugal oil/water separator in front of two neatly arranged sets of valves constituting minor controls for the turbines. They were all labelled but I cannot remember what they all did off the top of my head.