The conservation body Save Britain’s Heritage has published its annual update of at-risk buildings, with 60 new entries added to the 1,200 already on the list.
Among them are many listed buildings, places with significant heritage but at risk of falling into ruin through neglect or demolition. Some will need significant restoration work such as masonry repair or new flood protection, while others have faced the threat of demolition and have only been saved by determined campaigns from heritage bodies like Historic England.
They range from farms to hospitals, churches to places of entertainment, mansions and sporting facilities, with a range of possibilities stretching from returning to practical use through to practical conversions as housing or offices. Locations range from remote corners of national parks to areas of major cities undergoing rapid redevelopment.
Examples of buildings needing a lot of work include the disused but Grade I listed St Mary the Less church in Norwich, the Grade II listed Custom Watch House in Berwick-upon-Tweed, one of the last customs watch houses remaining in England, Oakwood Mill in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, the Regent Cinema in Deal, Kent, and Pollvellan Manor in Looe, Cornwall.
The list effectively amounts to a plea for new buyers to come forward and snap up some of the buildings, all of which would be available on the open market.
This is not a forlorn hope by any means; for example, should a new use be found for the Oakwood Mill in Stalybridge, it will be revived in much the same way many other former mills around Greater Manchester have, ranging from the flats and offices of Ancoats in central Manchester to the multiple uses found for mills in the Reddish area of Stockport.
It is too late for many old buildings, of course. In the case of Greater Manchester’s textile mills, a Salford University study in 2016-17 found 45 per cent of those still standing in the area in the 1980s had been demolished.
However, with the right efforts and repairs, many of the surviving mills, farmhouses, offices and other historic structures across the UK could have a much more positive fate.