|
|
|
|
|
Thursday 13th January 2005
|
Seamless Conservation at Victoria Mills
|
Decaying roof trusses in one of Bradford’s Grade II Listed textile mills have been sympathetically restored in a £30,000 project by local developers Newmason Properties.
Five 6 metre pitch pine trusses that once held up the roof of the steam engine shed at historic Jerome Mills, Saltaire, have been repaired and rejuvenated in a six week project described by Bradford Council conservationists as “a spot on job with total attention to quality and detail.”
“You can’t even see the join,” joked one conservation team member.
The truss restoration is part of a £70m scheme to breath new life into the 130-year-old woollen mills, now renamed Victoria Mills by Newmason Properties.
More than 400 luxury apartments are being provided on the bank of the River Aire, including Bradford's first half-million pound penthouse complete with roof garden and views over the moors to Baildon.
Restoration of the trusses - in The Link building - has been carried out in collaboration with Yeadon-based company Timberwise, who have been in the business of preserving treasured properties since 1967. It has involved removing 1.5m from each end of each 550mm by 225mm truss, replacing the rotted wood with pegged steel encased in a pine shoe – or ‘shutter box’ – and then bonding the ends with a high-strength resin.
Newmason’s project manager Tim Harper said: “The trusses could have been replaced with new for less money, but then we would have lost the sense of history. We could have gone down the road of using steel reinforcing plates, but that would not have been sympathetic either.
“This way the trusses that have been in situ for 130 years remain an integral part of the to development, along with the huge steel anchors hanging from them, which would have been used in mending and maintaining the highly-polished steam engine that drove the mill machinery.”
Timberwise surveyor Martin Wilkinson said: “It’s unusual to work for a developer who is prepared to go to such effort to conserve a site’s integrity – So far we have carried out over £80,000 worth of other restoration works at Victoria Mill. It’s good see proper traditional craftsmanship still at work.“
The trusses will form the living space of one of the luxury apartments at Victoria Mills, with a price tag of over £300,000.
In the days of Jerome Mill these apartments were used as schoolrooms to teach children their 3 R’s and today there is still the old school bell, which Newmason are also restoring, on the roof. These rooms are now part of a very special residential development that is centrally located between the Old and New Mill, giving the building a prime position on site.
Exposed brickwork, original stone, timbers and pillars, oak floors, an abundance of cast iron and a very high specification on fixtures and fittings are all features of the development.
Newmason Properties are also restoring the original Victorian mill gates and street lamps, as well as providing a riverside walk, landscaped communal gardens with water features, concierge facilities, private parking, CCTV security, an outdoor running track, gymnasium, and tennis courts.
Victoria Mills was principally built in 1873 by textile manufacturer Henry Mason and employed 1,000 people in its heyday, producing worsted coating and dress goods for export all over the world.
|
| Go back to Newmason News Archive |
|
|
|
|
|
Head Office: Victoria Mills, Salts Mills Road, Shipley, BD17 7EF
Tel: 0845 123 5535 | Fax: 0845 123 5536 | Email: info@newmason.co.uk
© Newmason Properties 2004 - All Rights Reserved |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
