Burnley mill gets Grade I listed status

10:30pm Saturday 28th December 2013 in NW

THE former Queen Street Mill has become only the fourth building in Burnley to be given the highest-possible heritage rating.

English Heritage has confirmed that the complex, home to the last working steam-powered mill engine in the world, has been given given Grade One listed status.

Only Towneley Hall, Gawthorpe Hall and Shuttleworth Hall, at Hapton, have earned the distinction since listings began in 1953.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey said: “The Queen Street Mill in Burnley is the epitome of a time when cotton production in Lancashire was Britain’s principal source of industrial wealth.

“It’s wonderful that it has survived all this time in such splendid condition. Listing it at Grade One will help ensure that it continues to tell the story of that era for many generations to come.”

The mill itself has been the backdrop to a number of TV and movie productions, most recently The King’s Speech, in a scene where King George VI struggles to address assembled workers.

Later Colin Firth would describe the mill engine, dubbed Peace in tribute to fallen soldiers in the Great War, as ‘a thing of beauty’.

Nick Bridgland, a northern English Heritage expert, added: “Queen Street Mill is a remarkable survival of a working, steam-powered textile mill from the heyday of Lancashire’s cotton production.

“The textile industry was one of the great drivers of Britain’s industrialisation and so has international importance.

“The survival of such a complete mill is unparalleled and merits listing at the highest grade.”

Today the mill, which ceased commercial operations in the early 80s, is run as a museum dedicated to the cotton trade, by Lancashire County Council.

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