Ditherington Flax Mill (promoted as the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings), a flax mill located in

Ditherington Ditherington is a suburb of the town of Shrewsbury, the county town of Shropshire, England. It is the fourth most deprived ward in non-metropolitan Shropshire. There has been much regeneration work in the southern part of Ditherington, which i ...

, a suburb of

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

, England, is the first iron-framed building in the world, and described as "the grandfather of

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...

s",'Father of the skyscraper' rescued for the nation

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

press release, undated, retrieved 27 May 2007 despite its five-storey height. Its importance was officially recognised in the 1950s,W. G. Rimmer, 'Castle Foregate Flax Mill, Shrewsbury' ''Transactions of Shropshire Archaeological Society'' LVI (1957–60), 49ff. resulting in it becoming a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. It is also locally known as the "Maltings" from its later use. The mill is in the hands of

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

and is currently in use as a mixed-use workspace and exhibition following its official opening in 2022.

History

The Flax Mill's architect was

Charles Bage Charles Woolley Bage (1751–1822) was an English architect, born in a Quaker family "Bage Way", part of Shrewsbury's 20th century inner ring road which links Old Potts Way to Crowmere Road, was named for him. References 1751 births 18 ...

, who designed the mill using an iron-framed structure, inspired by the work of William Strutt. The columns and cross-beams were made by

William Hazledine William Hazledine (1763 – 26 October 1840) was an English ironmaster. Establishing large foundries, he was a pioneer in casting structural ironwork, most notably for canal aqueducts and early suspension bridges. Many of these projects were c ...

at his foundry in Shrewsbury. The construction of the mill ran from 1796 to 1797, at a cost (including equipment) of £17,000. The mill was built for

John Marshall John Marshall (September 24, 1755July 6, 1835) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the fourth Chief Justice of the United States from 1801 until his death in 1835. He remains the longest-serving chief justice and fourth-longes ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

, Thomas Benyon, and Benjamin Benyon. The architect, Bage, was also a partner in the venture. This partnership was dissolved in 1804, the mill being retained by John Marshall, who paid off his partners on the basis that it was worth £64,000. Castlefields Mill was built by the other partners nearby. These two flax mills provided the 'chief manufacture' of Shrewsbury (according to an 1851 directory). The mill closed in 1886, and was sold, together with a bleach yard at

Hanwood Hanwood is a large village in Shropshire, England. It is located SW of Shrewsbury town centre, on the A488 road. The A5 is only a mile away. The Cambrian Line runs through the village but there is no longer a railway station here. It was clo ...

, for £3,000. The building was then converted to a maltings (hence its more commonly used local name), and as a consequence many windows were bricked up. Its design effectively overcame much of the problem of fire damage from flammable atmosphere, due to the air containing many fibres, by using a fireproof combination of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuri ...

columns and cast iron beams, a system which later developed into the modern

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The developm ...

which made skyscrapers possible. The maltings closed in 1987, suffering competition with modern production methods, with the complex left derelict until its purchase by

with support from the Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council and

Advantage West Midlands Advantage West Midlands was established in 1999 as one of nine regional development agencies (RDAs) in England. RDAs were created by the UK Government to drive sustainable economic development and social and physical regeneration through a bus ...

in 2005. Plans to transform the site into offices and shops were given approval in October 2010. Following the split of English Heritage in 2015 responsibility for statutory functions and protection of the site was inherited by

with the visitor attractions managed by local charity Friends of the Flaxmill Maltings. Following delays to restoration amid the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

, a new visitor centre, partly funded by the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

and the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and s ...

, opened in November 2015 in the former office and stables block. Phase Two of the restoration works started in June 2017, involving the Main Mill and the Kiln with an extra grant of £7.9 million on top of the previous £12.1 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund for conversion into a mixed-use venue. This phase involved the restoration of the larger windows from the flax mill era to improve natural lighting, although the existing smaller windows from the maltings era have been retained but with the frames replaced. The Main Mill was officially opened on 10 September 2022 as mixed-use workspace and public exhibition with a café and shop. It is hoped that the four remaining listed buildings (the Apprentice House, the Cross Mill, the Dye House and the Warehouse) will be restored in the coming years. In late September 2022, Friends of the Flaxmill Maltings announced their winding down as a charity and a company with the preference of Historic England for a company set up by themselves to take over operations.

Buildings in the group

Along with the main Flax Mill, a number of other buildings in the group are listed for their architectural and historic value: the apprentice house (Grade II*); the dye house (Grade II*); the flax dressing building or Cross Mill (Grade I); the flax warehouse (Grade I); the stables (Grade II); the malting kiln (Grade II) and the workshops and offices (Grade II). The mill and buildings are on the

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for acti ...

Gallery

File:DitheringtonFlaxmillReverse.jpg, West side of the Main Mill c.2002 prior to restoration. File:Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings north-east side June 2013.jpg, North-east side of the mill in June 2013 showing the scaffolding with white plastic sheeting for the restoration. Taken from the junction of St Michael's Street and Sultan Road. File:Flaxmill-Maltings west side in snow, December 2017.jpg, West side of the site in snow, December 2017. Taken from Hencote Lane, Shrewsbury. File:Flaxmill-Maltings top floor interior, September 2018.jpg, Restoration work on the top floor of the Main Mill in September 2018 with the work on the windows. File:Shrewsbury Flaxmill-Maltings north-east side December 2018.jpg, East side facing the junction of St Michael's Street and Sultan Road in December 2018 after the scaffolding was removed for the first time in about twelve years. File:Flaxmill Maltings Visitor Centre, 2019.jpg, The previous visitor centre in the former office block (smithy in the flax mill era) in 2019.

References

Sources

* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-23495105

External links