Following a £28 million restoration project by Historic England, the 226-year-old Main Mill at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings has been reborn. £20.7 million of funding for the restoration of the Main Mill and Kiln has come from National Lottery players through The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Using innovative thinking, architects, builders and engineers worked together to solve the challenges presented and successfully restored this important and influential historic building, providing a combination of both a learning space for the public and flexible office space.
Known as the ‘grandparent of skyscrapers’ with its pioneering iron frame, the Main Mill opened in 1797 as a purpose-built flax mill. Since then, the site has grown and been repurposed many times. It was a maltings from 1897 to 1987 and became a temporary army barracks during the Second World War. The Grade I listed Main Mill and the Grade II listed Kiln (added during the conversion to a maltings) are now restored and the Main Mill is open for the first time as a visitor destination, offering the opportunity to celebrate its history and learn about its past.
Jensen Hughes were brought onboard the project in 2012 to lead fire strategy development for this complex and sensitive scheme. Given the historic nature of the scheme, compliance with the standard codes of practice would have made many of the proposals unfeasible, including the plan for future public access to the Jubilee Tower, protection to the historic structural frame and use of the Kiln area as an escape route. The end result is a scheme which provides flexible use for ‘the next 100 years’ whilst still paying homage to the historical importance of the original building.
Recent restorations of the Main Mill include the opening of 110 former windows and state-of-the-art structural works to reinforce the masonry around the original, historically-important iron frame. The 25-meter Jubilee Tower has also been brought back to life to create a viewing tower, providing views across the site and beyond. The Kiln has been undergoing extensive internal and external repair as part of the restoration of the Flaxmill Maltings site. A new steel roof was installed with new timber roof rafters and a new skylight at the very top of the roof.
