How A Clean Up Helps An Old Mill Become A New Treasure

Across the UK but especially in the post-industrial north, many old mills stand idle and when they become derelict, they are eyesores and attract anti-social behaviour. However, some have been converted for new uses and look superb as they have taken on a fresh lease of life as homes or offices.

A good example of this may be found at Bowling Mill in the Dean Clough area of Halifax. A recent article in the architecture magazine Specific Review highlighted how the old building had been transformed into modern offices, with law firm Ramsdens moving there from the firm’s old town centre offices.

When redeveloped this way, old mills can offer large quantities of space, in this case 75,000 sq ft spread over seven floors. However, it would make no sense to create an attractive modern office on the inside and leave the outside looking dirty and overgrown.

That means any mill conversion will involve some outside clean-up work and structures like Bowling Mill will require equipment for cleaning the stone to give it a deep clean. 

For work such as this (for example, Carr’s Mill in Leeds or Martin’s Mill in Halifax), we would recommend our sand jetting process (a low dust version of sandblasting) that cleans stone and brick surfaces leaving character but removing the dirt.  

The use of stone in mills and other buildings is more characteristic of areas like West Yorkshire than some other parts of the country. 

For instance, around Greater Manchester, many old mills have been converted, but the construction material of choice for these was red brick. Again, the sand jet machine will clean this effectively, as evidenced by our Rutland Mills project in Wakefield and Merchant’s Place in Bolton.

Restoration work may not be the only reason for some mills to need significant cleaning work, as many were located close to waterways such as canals and navigable rivers to help transport their goods. That has meant some have become vulnerable to flooding.

A recent example of this was the Meadow Mill in Stockport, which has been converted for a mix of uses, with flats above a series of industrial and leisure units. It suffered flooding from the burst banks of the River Tame in the New Year.

While the interior will need a huge clean-up, the high levels of water and deposited mud means it will also require substantial cleaning on the outside as well.