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The Results are in



The clear winner of the poll for which historic building should be saved is Belper Mills. In fact, this should be buildings because the Belper site includes two mills, the North Mill which is the older of the two and built by William Strutt in 1803-4 and the other later mill, built by the English Sewing Cotton Company in 1912.

Apart from Bage's Mill at Shrewsbury (which has an altered exterior) the North Mill is the earliest example of a completely iron framed mill in the world and is certainly the most intact extant example of this type of construction. For this reason, it is listed grade 1 by Historic England and is acknowledged by UNESCO as one of the most important elements of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

Both mills are in the ownership of First Investment Real Estate Management who purchased them in 2002, just after the completion of a condition survey which identified the need for repairs of over £3 million for North Mill alone. Since then only short term patch repairs have been carried out and both buildings are now in an alarming state of disrepair with water pouring through the roof.

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