SAVE backs urgent listing application for threatened Manchester mill
Medlock Mill, aka Hotspur Press (Credit: Andy Marland)
Medlock Mill, aka Hotspur Press (Credit: Andy Marland)
Medlock Mill, aka Hotspur Press (Credit: Andy Marland)
SAVE Britain’s Heritage is supporting an urgent application made by a local campaigner to seek listed status for one of the earliest surviving cotton mills in Manchester.
7th June 2024
SAVE has submitted a letter to Historic England calling for urgent statutory protection for Medlock Mill, also known as Hotspur Press.
The handsome building represents the early evolution of mill technology in Manchester where the cotton industry drove the city’s growth and development – and in turn powered the UK’s Industrial Revolution.
A recent proposal to demolish and redevelop parts of the mill makes this a critical moment to list this rare and significant survival.
New evidence from the Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service (GMAAS) has revealed that parts of Medlock Mill, which sits beside the River Medlock in the city centre, date from as early as c.1794, though it was substantially rebuilt in 1801 after a fire.
In our letter of support, we emphasised that Medlock Mill is of special historic and architectural interest as it retains evidence of early mill technology in which a waterwheel was connected to a steam-powered pumping engine. There is also evidence that it was, unusually, operating as an integrated mill with both spinning and weaving. It represents an important stage in the evolution of power generation from the late 18th to 19th century, making it the only surviving mill of this type in Manchester.
Despite some later 19th-century alterations, many original features, like the 1801 five-sided fireproof stair tower on the spinning block’s northwestern facade, remain.
‘Development must be sympathetic’
Planning permission has already been granted once – in 2020 – for partial demolition, though this was not implemented. Now a similar application for demolition and redevelopment of the site has just been approved (ref no. 138805/FO/2023).
In SAVE’s letter to Historic England, our assistant conservation officer Lydia Franklin wrote: “While SAVE is supportive of finding a sustainable new use for this building, we consider it to be of paramount importance that the building is given statutory listed status to protect its nationally significant special historic and architectural interest, and ensure development is sympathetic to the building’s rarity.”
Don’t lose: Re-use
Over SAVE’s nearly 50-year history, we have shown time and time again how, with imagination and determination, existing buildings can be converted for contemporary uses and become desirable workspace, housing, retail or creative space.
Examples of successful mill conversions abound – including Lister Mills in Bradford, Saltaire in Yorkshire, and Stanley Mills in Perthshire (all featured in our publication Big SAVEs, available to buy on our website).
Last year SAVE published a report on threatened heritage in Greater Manchester, after which we added 18 buildings to our national Buildings at Risk register. We supported the council at a public inquiry, successfully defending 19th-century warehouses in Shudehill which were at threat of demolition. And in Oldham we led a campaign to save a 20th-century mural of national significance and are working with the community to help find a new use for the church in which it sits. We also regularly run city tours and walking events in the region.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
1. For more information contact Elizabeth Hopkirk, communications and editorial manager, elizabeth.hopkirk@savebritainsheritage.org / 020 7253 3500.
2. More information about SAVE's recent report, Boom not Bust – How Greater Manchester can build the future without destroying its past. Or buy a copy.
3. SAVE's press release on the recent Shudehill warehouses success.
4. SAVE Britain’s Heritage is an independent voice in conservation that fights for threatened historic buildings and sustainable reuses. We stand apart from other organisations by bringing together architects, engineers, planners and investors to offer viable alternative proposals. Where necessary, and with expert advice, we take legal action to prevent major and needless losses.