Flax Mill funding bid set to be submitted this month
A bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £11.6m towards the cost of regenerating Shrewsbury’s historic Flax Mill Maltings is set to be submitted by the end of this month after Shropshire Council’s Cabinet on Wednesday gave their approval for the submission.
A decision will be made by HLF in July 2013 and, if the bid is successful, work at the site will begin in September 2013.
In late 2011 the partners behind plans to bring the buildings back to life – Shropshire Council, English Heritage, and the Friends of the Flaxmill Maltings – submitted a bid to the HLF for £12.1m toward the cost of the first phase of development work at the Flax Mill Maltings site.
This first phase aims to restore and bring back into use some of the main historic buildings – including the Main Mill, the Kiln, the Dye and Stove House and the Office and Stables.
In May 2012 the HLF awarded the project a first-round pass, plus £465,300 to spend on developing the plans ahead of a second-round bid for the remaining £11,686,000.
Over the past 10 months the partners – and project architects Fielden Clegg Bradley – have been developing the plans for the site, and preparing a number of key documents to support the second round bid – including an interpretation plan that aims to identify potential users, and the development of a business plan to ensure the long-term sustainability of the buildings through a mix of public and commercial activity.
If funding is secured this summer, work to renovate the main buildings on the site would begin in September 2013, and they could be open to the public, and be the workplace for hundreds of people, as early as 2016.
Andy Evans, Head of Economic Growth and Prosperity with Shropshire Council, said: “A lot of work has been carried out since May last year and we’re almost ready to submit the second-round funding bid to the HLF. We have put together a really strong bid and are hopeful that it will be successful.”
Situated on the northern edge of the town, the internationally-important Flax Mill Maltings site reflects a time when Britain led the way in engineering innovation. It comprises seven listed buildings, including the Main Mill, which was built in 1797 and is the world’s first iron-framed building and the forerunner of the modern skyscraper.
A decision on a bid for a further £6m of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding is expected to be made this summer.
