Work begins to demolish silo at Shrewsbury Flax Mill Maltings
Work to to demolish the redundant south Silo at the former Shrewsbury Flax Mill Maltings will get underway today.
The work by Erith Contractors Ltd will open up the site for future development, and are due for completion by the end of January 2015.
Prior to demolition the silo will be fully encapsulated with scaffolding and a protective sheeting to prevent debris. Erith Contractors Ltd will carefully deconstruct the silo in small pieces, so that the historic main mill is not endangered. Specialist vibration monitoring equipment has been installed on site to ensure the historic buildings are secure throughout.
Chris Smith, Director of Heritage Protection and Planning at English Heritage said, “This is really good news. We are glad to be able to take another step forward on the road to the regeneration of the whole site."
Alan Mosley Chair of the Friends of the Flaxmill Maltings and local councillor said, “We are delighted that the work is underway and want to congratulate English Heritage on achieving this. We look forward to completion of the demolition and then the start of renovation of the Office and Stables building to create a visitor centre for our work, including reception, interpretation, learning, research and displays.”
A funding package of £2.6m was awarded earlier this month to Stage one of the Shrewsbury Flax Mill Maltings project to kick start regeneration. The Department for Communities and Local Government have awarded funding through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the maximum amount of funding requested by English Heritage - £1,169,226. English Heritage have provided the balance of the funds.
As well as the demolition of the 1950s silo, stage one will also see the conversion of the office and stables for use by the Friends of the Flax Mills Maltings as a visitor and reception centre.
English Heritage announced they were taking the lead in the regeneration of Shrewsbury’s Flax Mill Maltings in March 2014. They appointed one of their senior managers, Tim Johnston, Planning and Conservation Director for the West Midlands, to run the project for the first 12 months. He is devoting his time to progressing the first stage of the project and creating a long-term future for the Flax Mill Maltings.
