Stables and Office Blocks, Ditherington Flax Mill, Shrewsbury, Shropshire - Building Investigation

As part of a major scheme of regeneration and repair works at Ditherington Flax Mill in Shrewsbury, Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, acting on behalf of English Heritage, to carry out a programme of archaeological building recording. The work was targeted on the Stable and former Smithy/Office buildings (centred on NGR SJ 49824 13812), a pair of twostorey structures dating to the late eighteenth- / early nineteenth-century in the southwestern part of the mill complex.
Regeneration propsals allow for the repair of most of the buildings on the site, although a lean-to structure between the former Smithy/Office and Stables is beyond economic repair and has thus been recommended for demolition. Enabling works during repairs, and the demolition of the dilapidated lean-to structure, has provided access to previously unrecorded parts of the buildings, allowing a comprehensive gazetteer of features and fittings within the two structures to be completed.
The former Smithy/Offices is a brick-built, two-storey structure that was added to the flax mill site before 1811. It is marked on a plan of 1855 as a smithy, but the first
floor was converted for use as an office in the later nineteenth century. This involved the insertion of an additional fireplace and the replacement of an internal stair with an external stair that afforded access to the first floor from the mill yard. The former Smithy/Offices is presently afforded designation as a Grade II listed building.