Work starts on Shrewsbury's Flax Mill in £500,000 repair plan

Work is being carried out as part of a £500,000 project to conduct urgent repairs to sections of Shrewsbury’s historic Flax Mill buildings.

English Heritage is carrying out improvements to the Dye House and the Kiln buildings at the site.

It follows a structural inspection last summer which raised health and safety concerns about parts of the buildings.

Andrew Patterson, project manager for English Heritage, said work on the scheme was progressing well and was on course to be completed by the end of March.

“Everything is fine, we are slightly ahead of schedule and we will keep our fingers crossed about the weather, although most of the work is taking place inside,” he said.

“It is a number of buildings, with the main work in the Dye House and the Kiln. Any building suffers from water ingress and moving forward we are trying to prevent that.

“At the moment, we have just got scaffolders on site putting things up for different phases.” Mr Patterson said the issue had been exacerbated at the Flax Mill because of the buildings’ derelict nature.

A bid has been made for £11.7 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to pay for an overhaul of the Flax Mill in Ditherington, with a decision due later this year.

Plans to regenerate the site were dealt a blow last May when the HLF rejected an original bid for funding.

See also:

• First look at £12m plans for Shrewsbury’s Flax Mill
• Shrewsbury’s Flax Mill plea to Prince Charles