An investigation has begun after an important part of a historically significant local mill site was destroyed, the The Telegraph and Argus has reported.
image: Chris Allen / Low Mill, Keighley – CC BY-SA 2.0 Commons Wikimedia
… building has been derelict for decades…
…historic water features on the site were recently concreted over…
The Telegraph and Argus writes:
Low Mill on Gresley Road in Keighley, dates back to 1779, was the first cotton mill to be built in Yorkshire and is one of just two Grade II* listed buildings in the town.
The mill was powered by water diverted from the River Worth through a series of sluices a goit.
But the building has been derelict for decades, and last year it was added to Save Britain’s Heritage’s “At Risk” register of historic and heritage buildings that face an uncertain future.
Bradford Council has revealed that it has begun an investigation after the historic water features on the site were recently concreted over.
Details of the investigation were discussed at a meeting of the Council’s Bradford Planning Panel at a meeting on Wednesday.
Members were discussing a planning application to build a steel fabricating workshop in front of the site.
The application had been submitted by JCL Machinery Limited, who had bought a section of the site after the damage was done, unaware of the unauthorised work which had been done by a previous owner…
The application had said the workshop had been designed to ‘echo the style of the mill’ and would not harm the setting of the existing building.
A heritage statement included in the application, written by Craft Design and Build, acknowledged the concerns about the unauthorised works, saying: “Had we have been consulted sooner we would have advised the client not to obtain the site…”
Historic England had said of the application: “The mill is highly significant for a number of reasons including the early date of construction, the fact that it was a cotton mill (unusual in this area) and the association with Sir Richard Arkwright, renowned industrial engineer.
“The application site is to the west of Low Mill and lies over the former waterways and sluices that fed the eighteenth century internal waterwheel of the mill. These constituted an important curtilage component of the listing but appear to have been destroyed relatively recently.
“The destruction of the water management system constitutes an act of heritage crime.”
