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Ditherington Flax Mill

Ditherington Mill has featured in the local news ever since we moved to Shropshire primarily because of the escalating costs associated with it's restoration, £20m so far. Why is it important?

It was the first iron framed building in the world, the father of all skyscrapers and modern large buildings. It opened in 1797, only 20 years after the first Iron Bridge was built just down the road so you could say Shropshire was the epicenter of modern construction. The reason for this revolutionary design was the owner wanted a fire proof building for his flax mill. Flax is highly combustible, the workers needed candles to see what they were doing and as a result many wooden framed flax mills had burnt down.

Whilst the owner came from Leeds Shrewsbury had a good ironworks in the town and a local architect championed using iron as a building material so this is where it was built. Even more revolutionary steam power was used to drive the machinery rather than water wheels so it was not built next to the river.

In the restored building the ground floor has a cafe and museum, floors 1-4 are to be used as offices (the first floor is already let). The picture opposite shows one of the empty floors, the silver painted iron pillars support cross girders, the odd looking square hole in the central pillars is where the drive shaft for the machines ran along the length of the room. The ceilings are vaulted brick, so nothing which can catch fire although current health and safety insisted on them fitting smoke detectors.

The business prospered for 100 years but then the market for flax based linen collapsed with the advent of cotton after which the building was converted to a maltings which it remained until 1987.

The site has many more buildings and spare land all of which they want to use for houses to try and recoup some of the £20m. I was always a bit cynical about the cost of the project but after the tour, which was supposed to last an hour but actually lasted two, I am a convert. If you are in Shrewsbury it is well worth a visit, you do need to book the tour in advance.