Reddish Mill

Reddish was a rural area when William Houldsworth moved his spinning business there from central Manchester with the completion of Houldsworth Mill on a greenfield site in 1865. This was a considerable act of faith during the American Civil War which had caused such disruption to the Lancashire textile industry. The mill, designed by A. H. Stott was located alongside the Stockport branch of the Ashton Canal which had opened in 1798. The mill has a most impressive front with two large four-storey blocks linked by a central section flanked by Italianate staircase towers, the central block being surmounted by a pediment clock. The mill was of fireproof construction with brick-arched ceilings supported on cast-iron columns and rolled iron beams. The mill has now been converted into residential accommodation in the left-hand wing and business and light industrial use in the right-hand wing.

William Houldsworth’s intention was not just to provide a source of employment but also to provide houses, a school, a church, a park and also a working men’s club. A. H. Stott was responsible for the design of worker’s housing opposite Houldsworth Mill, substantial brick houses with bay windows and front gardens and the more modest houses behind on Liverpool Street. Also it is significant that the Working Men’s Club, with great bow windows and ornamental roof, again designed by Stott was built before the school and church which it temporarily housed. Houldsworth was quite emphatic that it was a club not a Mechanics Institute and he could see no conflict between beer and the bible.