Hundreds of important listed buildings, giant reminders of the industrial revolution including mills, warehouses, factories and power stations, are decaying across the country, English Heritage has warned.
Industrial structures are the most endangered of Grade I and Grade II* listings, with more than one in 10 considered at risk, three times the rate for the list as a whole, according to a report publishedon Wednesday. The redundant lead, tin, copper and coal mines which once helped Britain lead the industrial revolution are in greatest danger, hugely expensive to maintain and with no clear future use.
A survey by English Heritage has found the public to be sympathetic — if slightly vague on the details — to the industrial giants in their landscape. Only 9% considered such structures depressing or an eyesore, 86% thought it important to value the industrial heritage, 80% thought it as important as castles and country houses — but 47% did not know when the industrial revolution, which began in the 18th century and continued into the 19th century, happened.
Developers stuck with a mine or a mill on their site are much less sympathetic. The survey found most think the cost of doing anything with the structures would be prohibitive, and also believe — wrongly — that listed status would be a stranglehold on conversion.
Although an estimated 40% of the buildings could be returned to or maintained in sustainable use, many, particularly in the former industrial heartlands of the north and Midlands, are redundant: there is no obvious new role for pithead baths or winding wheels.
Simon Thurley, the chief executive of English Heritage, said there were no easy answers. “As this country’s traditional manufacturing base continues to shrink, our industrial heritage falls ever more prey to dereliction, decay and ultimately demolition.”
He insisted the buildings and sites could spark regeneration in towns and cities, given “the strong national passion for this defining element of our past”.
“Where there was innovation, enterprise and design in the past, so there can be again in the new uses that creative and imaginative developers are finding for industrial buildings, from factories, mills and granaries to engineering works and warehouses.”
The lost history of industrial Britain is traced in the striking regional differences in the types of threatened structures. Textile mills are concentrated in Lancashire and Yorkshire: in the north-east more than half the sites at risk relate to mining: in the flat farming lands of the east of England 57% of the sites at risk are wind or water mills, and in the south-east 38% are connected to shipping and naval dockyards.
English Heritage will part-finance a fund to kickstart rescue projects, and an industrial heritage support officer to help trusts and voluntary groups. It is also publishing a guide which reflects the grim financial climate and its own slashed budget – “An owner’s guide to temporary uses, maintenance and mothballing” – suggesting ways of keeping the buildings from collapse until better times come.