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After escaping demolition in the 1980s, Victorian textile mills are once again facing an uncertain future, say conservationists The cathedrals of the north, with their evocative roll call of names such as Black Dyke, Titanic and Goitside, are at risk again from recession, according to conservationists and historians. The economic squeeze is reviving fears last allayed two decades ago that the UK’s heritage of Victorian textile mills is under renewed threat from the ball-and-chain and bulldozer. Success stories such as Saltaire near Bradford, one of the country’s biggest buildings which is now a world heritage site ranking beside Stonehenge, disguise a wider, much bleaker picture. A report highlights more than 50 architecturally important mills in Bradford alone that face an uncertain future. “Wander for 10 minutes in any direction in one of England’s northern cities, and you’ll find a mill in trouble,” said Nigel Grizzard, a Leeds-based historian and organiser of Our Northern Mills, which has monitored the situation since the last crisis in the 1980s. “Many people have a rosy belief that the problem has been solved, but the reality is that hundreds of buildings are in serious difficulty.” The crisis follows the stalling of the market for housing conversions, which put a premium on the sturdy buildings – stone in Yorkshire and brick in Lancashire – as characterful urban housing. Small and medium-sized firms using former wool and cotton mills as “business clusters” with communal facilities are also feeling the pinch, as well as the cost of maintenance and restrictions caused by listing as architecturally or historically important. In Greater Manchester the textile firm Leigh Spinners, which has diversified over a century from cotton and carpets to making synthetic grass for football pitches, has been seeking a buyer for 18 months for its Grade II* listed, 3.4-hectare (8.5-acre) mill to move to somewhere more modern. The company’s managing director, Peter Horrocks, said the firm, and its 40 staff, were “trapped” in the vast premises, which English Heritage considers one of the finest of its kind in the north-west. He appealed to the government to relax laws on adapting mills, including limited demolition of unwanted space. The sheer size of the buildings means that even successful complexes such as Saltaire, or Dean Clough in Halifax, which was once the largest carpet-making factory in the world, have room for new tenants. “Most of them could find you 100,000 sq ft if you were looking for space,” said Grizzard. “But for all the problems of recession, that’s the way we should be going. These are amazing buildings, built in a time of cheap materials and labour to a level of quality that we can seldom match today.” A conference hosted last week by Our Northern Mills at Saltaire heard details of a series of thriving conversions, including the local Victoria mill, whose worsted production system– from newly sheared sheep fleeces arriving on the top floor to high-quality suits emerging from the bottom one – now houses 440 flats. The complex has grown through seven years and £80m-worth of conversion and new-build, financed by a steady increase in residents from 200 in 2006 to more than 600 today. “It’s a fantastic place, as is Saltaire,” said Grizzard. “So are the lofts and apartments which Urban Splash is making at Manningham mills,” (another behemoth of a building whose silk and velvet products were rated the finest in the UK in Victorian times). “Potential development is still there, but needs a hand from a thorough survey of mills at risk. We’ve got to raise the profile of these truly important buildings.” At Leigh, English Heritage is hoping to broker talks between Leigh Spinners and developers with a track record of conversions. Although large-scale schemes may be on hold until better economic times, a spokeswoman said that grants for repairs were likely to be available and feasibility studies could be funded by a local heritage trust – a model that has triggered rescues elsewhere. Revival may also be helped by concern over threats to green belts around the UK’s urban areas. Most mills are on urban “brownfield” land, which local authorities and central government are targeting as the best place for new retail parks and homes. Frances Armitage-Smith, a Manchester architect with specialist experience of mills, said: “These buildings have already demonstrated their adaptability over time. Mill space is commonly rented out cheaply as warehousing, but could support more beneficial new uses cost effectively, especially as building land in many northern cities is now at a premium because developers have been land-banking during the recession.” Our Northern Mills is planning a larger conference and workshop later this year, supplemented by a TV documentary and online campaign. The last major renaissance for northern mills, following a crisis in the 1980s when even Saltaire and Dean Clough were in danger of demolition, began when entrepreneurs moved in at the nadir of the property slump. One in danger – Bradford Conditioning House – is an ornate monument to the city’s textile heyday, built by a special act of parliament in 1887 to test wool for diseases such as anthrax. The only one in the UK, its scientific status was marked by ornately carved sandstone and fine ironwork, but it was declared redundant and closed by the city council in 1990. Since then, a succession of conversion schemes have stalled or foundered, including headquarters for the regional Revenue & Customs and a retail village. The condition of the unique complex, which included a Moth Room to study insect infestation and a Light Room to check colour fastness, is causing increasing concern. One saved mill – Redbrick Mill in Batley, West Yorkshire – was a rundown complex two decades ago, left over from the “shoddy and mungo” industries, the Cinderella of the textile industry in which rags and scrap cloth were pulped and reformed.. A rescue in 1999 by the entrepreneur Steven Battye, who failed the 11-plus but went on to found the Skopos design firm, saw conversion to a retail centre whose designer outlets and stores, including Heals and Conran, still have locals blinking. Battye, who died last year, said optimism was the key. “We took a building worth practically nothing and turned it into a magnet for all kinds of firms who would otherwise not be in this part of West Yorkshire.” Heritage Regeneration Communities Conservation Martin Wainwright guardian.co.uk