Helmshore Mills textile Museum, Helmshore, Lancashire. Archaeological Evaluation.

Lancashire County Museums Service has recently secured a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to facilitate improvements to the interpretation and access at the site of
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, Helmshore, Lancashire (SD 77821 21541). The site incorporates two multi-storey textile mills, the earliest of which (Higher Mill) was built in 1789 as a water-powered fulling mill, and the second was erected in c1828 as a woollen weaving mill (Whitaker’s Mill). Both mills and associated structures are collectively designated a Scheduled Monument (LA143).
Amongst a suite of minor modifications and improvements to the mills, it has been proposed that an element of the grant funding be used to create an accessible space between Higher Mill and Whitaker’s Mill. It is envisaged that this new structure would form an accessible space in the centre of the site linking the two mill buildings, whilst highlighting their detached nature. It is proposed that the new building will be erected on the footprint of a former boiler house that was demolished during the 1970s, and will necessitate the demolition of a small modern building that links
Higher Mill with Whitaker’s Mill.