Many of the early Kidderminster factories where cloth and carpets were made had once been the manufacturers back yard and garden - long narrow, rectangular plots of land, around three sides of which had been built dye-houses, stores, warehouses, and occasionally loom shops, though most loom shops were still scattered throughout the town and not collected into one factory. The forth side of the long narrow yard was usually the rear of the manufacturers dwelling house.
As example the large house in Mill Street, built 1748. Behind it was a large L shaped malt house and other buildings around a paved yard. The garden stretched back down to the Stour. 50 years later, the malt house had been converted to a wet silk room where threads were soaked before dying. One side of the garden was filled by a dye-house, coal-house and brimstone stove where cloth could be bleached. On the opposite side had been erected a finishing room for silk cloth, while the foot of the garden was used for the newer and larger dye-house where both silk and cotton dying were carried out. This plan with its rectangular yard became the pattern for the newer carpet works of the 19th century at the rear of Vicar Street, where part of Brinton's factory stands.
At the Back Brook was a lane with several cottages. Abutting the cottage gardens was a long brick building - through the doors was a 50ft yard with a gate only 8ft wide, and either side was crowded shops and dye-houses. Another carpet loom shop - two-storeys high, this was the warehouse, the offices and counting house, where men came for their money. On the opposite side of the counting house was rooms with loading platforms which joined on to the end of the bobbin room.
