Lune Mill, Lancaster. Historic Building Recording
Birmingham Archaeology, 2017. https://doi.org/10.5284/1046280. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © University of Birmingham unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Historic England
1 Waterhouse Square
138-142 Holborn
London
EC1N 2ST
UK
Tel: 01793 414700
Fax: 01793 414707
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 2903
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1046280
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
In September 2007, Birmingham Archaeology undertook a programme of historic building recording at Lune Mill, Lancaster, (centred on NGR SD 4630 6200). The work was commissioned by Countryside Properties in order to fulfil a planning condition (application no. 1/05/00103/OUT) with respect to the demolition of existing buildings and the redevelopment of the study area with a mixture of residential and industrial units. In 2005, the study area was the subject of an archaeological building assessment by Oxford Archaeology North, who made specific recommendations for further historic building recording.
The recording work was carried out to a degree equivalent to Royal Commission on Historical Monuments of England Level 2 and 3 (RCHME 1996/English Heritage 2006). This included the production of a written record of the buildings, a measured survey of the relevant buildings, and a photographic record in both digital and black and white format. In addition a recent topographic survey of the study area was integrated into this archive.
This programme of historic building recording at Lune Mill, Lancaster revealed that in addition to the demolition of large parts of the site, and despite the fact that the majority of the buildings that remain retain a good deal of their historical fabric, the historic building recording failed to reveal much about their specific function and the construction history of the individual buildings and of the entire site. This lack of understanding was due to site specific difficulties such as lack of access to many of the buildings due to health and safety precautions, and to the removal of original fixtures and fittings in the later 20th-century as part of the continuing change of function on the site. All of those buildings included in this report were either constructed in the late 19th or early 20th-centuries, a time during which linoleum manufacturing at Lune Mill was in its nascence and reaching its pre-First World War peak. A diverse range of buildings survive and have been recorded; these include late 19th-century office buildings, warehouses, floor printing mill, reservoir, pump house, and workshops, whilst a number of early 20th-century structures also survive such as warehousing, cork stores, Hessian backing plant, and a gate house. The diversity and survival of such buildings as a group is significant and rare, particularly at this scale and date in Lancaster.
The digital images mentioned in the report are not included in this archive.
