Dye and Stove House Group Placement - Exploring Repair and Adaptive Re-Use
Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings is an internationally important heritage site, made up of eight listed buildings and home to the world’s first iron framed building.
A recent restoration project, led by site owners Historic England and supported by funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership via its Growth Deal with Government, has restored the Smithy and Stables and brought the Main Mill and Kiln back into use for a third century.
Following the completion of the first two phases of restoration work, Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings is now looking to the future. The plan is to restore the four remaining listed buildings on site, including the Grade II* Dye and Stove House, once it had been decided how the buildings will be used and funding to carry out the work is in place.
The Placement Programme
The conservation of Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings provides an opportunity to offer training and hands-on experience in heritage skills, using the site as a tool for learning.
As part of the project, Historic England delivered a programme of 60 work placements over the course of five years, providing participants with the opportunity to learn about and become involved with the conservation, regeneration and interpretation of a major heritage site.
Planning the placement
The Dye and Stove House Group Placement
Building upon a previous placement run for Historic Environment Advice Assistant apprentices and the futures plans for the site, the group placement explored the possibilities for the adaptive reuse of the Dye and Stove House complex.
Working with staff from Historic England and architects from Feilden-Clegg Bradley Studios, participants developed proposals for the reuse of the Dye and Stove House which considered its current condition, historic significance, and context.
Learning objectives
- Conservation principles and their application
- Significance in the context of listed buildings
- Approaches to repair of historic buildings
- Adaptive re-use approaches
- Working collaboratively across professions
The planning process
As the placement built upon previous work and upon the contributions of sector and project experts, the planning process was collaborative. A small team led by the Sector Skills Advisor met regularly to develop the programme and its content.
Recruitment
Due to the complexity of the planned content and lessons learned from previous feedback, it was agreed that recruitment would be aimed primarily at university students on relevant courses such as architecture, conservation and building surveying who were looking to enter the heritage sector.
Twelve places were advertised for this placement, allowing for three groups of four participants to work together on their proposals. The response was positive, with many students choosing to apply of which:
- 52 applicants underwent shortlisting
- 23 were invited to interview
- 12 were offered places
- 3 were held in reserve
The Participants
Following the shortlisting and interviews, twelve applicants were invited to take part in the placement from a variety of backgrounds.
- 3 were local to Shrewsbury
- 3 were international students
- 6 had yet to start their careers
- 2 were early career professionals
- 4 were mid-career or returning to work
Placement delivery
Activities and programme
The placement programme involved a mixture of online learning and on-site activities over the course of a week.
This allowed us to keep costs down while still providing practical experience with work on-site, enable the participation of speakers with other commitments, and give opportunities to develop skills for both in-person and online work.
Activities focused on understanding the condition and repair needs of the building and exploring re-use.
The first day of the week-long placement was spent online learning about:
- The Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings project
- Industrial heritage strategies
- Conservation principles and significance
This was followed by two days on-site exploring the Dye and Stove House complex and its context, its condition and repair needs, and adaptive reuse approaches. On the final afternoon on-site, the participants split into groups to begin working on their proposals for re-use.
The remaining days were spent online developing the group proposals. On the final day the groups presented their ideas to the subject experts and to each other.
The Task
For their adaptive re-use task, each group was assigned a potential future use (retail, community, or workspace). For the activity, the subject experts assumed the role of ‘clients’ with briefs asking the participants to consider:
- Conservation principles
- Repair needs
- Meanwhile use
- Phasing of works
- Energy Efficiency
Feedback and Outcomes
Feedback was gathered from all twelve participants through an end of placement survey and through comments in their individual training plans. A selection of quotes from feedback we received are shared below.
Most of the feedback fell into three categories:
- Career Development
- Heritage Specific Knowledge and Skills
- Workplace Skills & Experience
The amazing thing about this project is that it is very much a live project, which I have not worked on before. It allows much greater free thinking and creativity.
[This placement has provided] inspiration into my route to working with heritage buildings.
The main thing that I have taken away from this week is the scope and potential of working in historic building conservation.
The placement has made me think very differently about historic buildings - their complexity and the challenge of incorporating their reuse into wider masterplans.
I have particularly learnt about the complexities of repairing and how the repair options are often tied to the eventual reuse - something I didn't appreciate beforehand.
It was very helpful to put what I have learned so far on my course into practice and realise that I know more than I perhaps believed.
In university, projects tend to focus on city centre sites - considering the connectivity and smaller community population was a learning curve, and something I didn’t even know I needed to learn!
The group discussions helped me learn from people of different educational and professional backgrounds, and the information and knowledge I had a chance to gain from Kim, Nick, Tim, and Jessica were amazing.
Outcomes
The groups were able to produce three detailed and innovative proposals. Ideas around uses for different elements of the buildings structure have provided valuable food for thought such as:
- Reopening a goods entrance to provide a new entryway along the Kiln thoroughfare
- Utilising the hoist towers to grow microgreens as a meanwhile use to provide new income
- Adapting and reusing the existing floor cavities to run new utility cables and services
The presentations have been saved until plans for further restoration are ready to move forward.
Lessons Learned
- Beginning planning well in advance reduces costs and workload stress closer to delivery
- More time on site would have been preferred by participants
- The programme covered a significant amount of content for five days, making it quite intensive
- Participants found the experience valuable for a variety of reasons – some unexpected
