Biggles
April 8th, 2005, 12:15 PM
World's first iron-framed building saved
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Friday April 8, 2005
The Guardian
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/arts/2005/04/08/ditheringtonmill2357.jpg
Iron supports at Ditherington Flax Mill, Shrewsbury, the ancestor of the modern skyscraper which has been declared one of England's most important buildings at risk. Photo: English Heritage
Nobody passing a scruffy, half-derelict industrial estate on the outskirts of Shrewsbury would imagine that one of the battered, red-brick structures is the ancestor of today's skyscrapers - the first iron-framed building in the world.
Sir Neil Cossons, chairman of English Heritage, which has just bought the complex after helplessly watching it rot for years, is passionate about Ditherington Flax Mill, and describes it as "one of the most important buildings in England - or anywhere".
It was built in 1796 by John Marshall, a linen magnate, and his partners, the Benyon Brothers, who had good reason to dread fire in mill buildings: they had just suffered £10,000 worth of damage at a Leeds mill, of which only half was covered by insurance.
Charles Bage came up with a solution: instead of timber posts, joists and floorboards, he used iron columns supporting iron beams, carrying shallow brick arches, then a thick layer of sand, then tiles forming the surface of the next floor. It cost at least 25% more to build than a conventional mill, but the design was swiftly copied by mill builders elsewhere.
Getting buildings into the sky needed the further inspiration of a self-supporting outer metal frame and the invention of lifts to take people up to the higher floors - but it all started at Ditherington.
"Funnily enough, the one place it wasn't copied was the United States," said Sir Neil. "They had access to fantastic trees, and believed that if you just used thick enough timbers they would just char and burn out before you got any serious damage. It worked, too. You can still see mills there [with] scorched patches under the beams."
He first went on a pilgrimage to Ditherington in 1962, when its importance had only just been realised and it was still in use as a malting, and in good condition. It then went through a succession of owners and projected new uses, sitting empty and increasingly forlorn, despite its Grade I listing. Two years ago, it was declared one of England's most important buildings at risk - a situation Sir Neil described as "little short of scandalous".
English Heritage has now bought the site with a grant from Advantage West Midlands, a local development agency, and will be seeking a developer to take on the whole site which includes several other listed structures, but may also have room for housing. Access to at least part of the mill, to allow the public to see what all the fuss was about, will be part of the development.
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Friday April 8, 2005
The Guardian
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/arts/2005/04/08/ditheringtonmill2357.jpg
Iron supports at Ditherington Flax Mill, Shrewsbury, the ancestor of the modern skyscraper which has been declared one of England's most important buildings at risk. Photo: English Heritage
Nobody passing a scruffy, half-derelict industrial estate on the outskirts of Shrewsbury would imagine that one of the battered, red-brick structures is the ancestor of today's skyscrapers - the first iron-framed building in the world.
Sir Neil Cossons, chairman of English Heritage, which has just bought the complex after helplessly watching it rot for years, is passionate about Ditherington Flax Mill, and describes it as "one of the most important buildings in England - or anywhere".
It was built in 1796 by John Marshall, a linen magnate, and his partners, the Benyon Brothers, who had good reason to dread fire in mill buildings: they had just suffered £10,000 worth of damage at a Leeds mill, of which only half was covered by insurance.
Charles Bage came up with a solution: instead of timber posts, joists and floorboards, he used iron columns supporting iron beams, carrying shallow brick arches, then a thick layer of sand, then tiles forming the surface of the next floor. It cost at least 25% more to build than a conventional mill, but the design was swiftly copied by mill builders elsewhere.
Getting buildings into the sky needed the further inspiration of a self-supporting outer metal frame and the invention of lifts to take people up to the higher floors - but it all started at Ditherington.
"Funnily enough, the one place it wasn't copied was the United States," said Sir Neil. "They had access to fantastic trees, and believed that if you just used thick enough timbers they would just char and burn out before you got any serious damage. It worked, too. You can still see mills there [with] scorched patches under the beams."
He first went on a pilgrimage to Ditherington in 1962, when its importance had only just been realised and it was still in use as a malting, and in good condition. It then went through a succession of owners and projected new uses, sitting empty and increasingly forlorn, despite its Grade I listing. Two years ago, it was declared one of England's most important buildings at risk - a situation Sir Neil described as "little short of scandalous".
English Heritage has now bought the site with a grant from Advantage West Midlands, a local development agency, and will be seeking a developer to take on the whole site which includes several other listed structures, but may also have room for housing. Access to at least part of the mill, to allow the public to see what all the fuss was about, will be part of the development.