Housing scheme gears up as charity seeks contractor
Historic England has taken a step closer to building dozens of homes on the site of the famous Flaxmill Maltings site in Shrewsbury after it kicked off the hunt for a contractor to carry out preparatory work on the former industrial site.
Flaxmill Maltings was built in 1797 at the peak of the industrial revolution and is the world’s first iron-frame building. After a century working as a flax mill, the buildings were converted into a maltings in 1897.
The site stopped trading in 1987 and became derelict. English Heritage (now known as Historic England) bought the site in 2005 and carried out emergency repairs to the site.
The proposed housing has been designed as part of a wider masterplan designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios which was granted planning in 2010.
Historic England has already completed the first phase of regeneration work on outer buildings, worth £2.5m, including £1.2m from the European Regional Development Fund.
The second phase will see the maltings building fully restored as part of the £21m project, with the roof replaced, alongside the delivery of new commercial and education space.
The £2m contract for the preparatory work, which is pegged to start in May next year, will include improvements to 2ha of land surrounding the maltings building, including road junctions, a new pedestrian and cycle crossing and the demolition of industrial buildings.
FCB Studios has worked on the Flaxmill scheme as strategic adviser and architect since 2003.
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