Old Saw Mill or Coach House

54/54a Dodworth Green Road

Building

Roofed and walled permanent structures.

Asset type

Building

Age

Late 18th to early 19th Century

Rarity

Pre-1850 building representing an rare, and high quality, survival of an industrial building in a rural context related to the regionally important linen weaving trade.

Architectural and Artistic Interest

The Old Saw Mill, or Coach House, represents a surviving ancillary shed of high quality design, built from local materials. The building comprises a linear, two storey range, built from squared sandstone, with principal north facing elevation consisting of six regular bays of wide arched doorways with finely dressed surrounds and centred windows above at first floor level. The roof is pitched, and hipped to its south, and covered in stone slates. Whilst conversion has infilled the arches with glazing and added lean-to extensions to the west, the original design and character of the building is readily appreciable. A pointed arched window (formerly a door) in the east gable faces onto the road, and is a high-status late-19th century feature presumably added at time of conversion to a coach house.

Group Value

The building forms part of a dispersed group of historic buildings within Dodworth Green with very little modern infill and a high degree of survival of historic character. The group value of these assets generates a distinctive townscape of special character and appearance. The Old Saw Mill may also have been historically associated with the Grade II Listed Dodworth Grange, becoming its coach house after its industrial function went out of use.

Historic Interest

The site of the saw mill appears to have been developed by the time of Thomas Jeffreys 1760s map of Yorkshire, with the mill clearly shown on the Old Series OS map of 1837 as a right angled range extending back from Dodworth Green Road. The building is recorded in 1861 census as having been occupied by the Shaw family, wood turners, and appears for let in the Barnsley Chronicle a decade later (13.07.1872) described as 'an old-established turning mill, with plenty of trade' and owned by Henry Hellewell of Scarborough. At that time the machinery was listed as including an engine, boiler, shafting, drums, circular saw, benches, plaining machine, grindstone, joiners' benches, rim-bending machine, turning lathes, pick shat lathe oval and others. The mills principal products included shafts for all variety of tools, riddle and sieve rims, chairs, and peggies. Whilst not mentioned, presumably because of the decline in the local cottage industry by this date, it is likely that the mill previously also produced bobbins for the local linen weaving trade. By the end of the 19th century the mill and its surrounding land was shown on OS maps to be associated with the neighbouring Dodworth Grange (the curving, S-shaped, 'braces' denoting the land was considered as one parcel). Whilst the main buildings survived into the mid 20th century, the northern range was later demolished leaving only the west range now known as the 'coach house'. Whether it was built as a cart shed for the works, or adapted to a coach house when it became under the ownership of Dodworth Grange is uncertain. The coach house was converted into private dwellings in the 1970s-80s.

Archaeological Interest

There is a strong likelihood that the building preserves evidence within its fabric for not only the development and original function, but also the lifestyle of the people who occupied them.

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14 Jun 2023