Milestone celebrated as Burnley Council and Barnfield Construction and other partners gather for exclusive preview of Newtown Mill in Burnley

This transformative project is set to play a pivotal role in Burnley’s ambitions to be a university town. Since 2010, UCLan’s Burnley Campus has been offering a range of foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate programs from a base at Princess Way. The campus expanded further in 2018 with the acquisition of Victoria Mill and the opening of Sandygate Halls in 2020, which provides 136 student accommodation spaces.

The £15m redevelopment of the former Newtown Mill, located on Queen’s Lancashire Way, will create approximately 35,000 sq ft of innovative teaching facilities and a business interaction zone, along with public realm improvements to Sandygate.

Coun. Lubna Khan, Burnley Council Executive Member for Economy and Growth said: “We are pleased that Newtown Mill will soon be complete, allowing students to enjoy the new facilities. The restoration of this landmark building will not only enhance UCLan’s campus presence in Burnley but also inspire the borough’s young people, solidifying Burnley’s status as a university town. Thanks to funding from UK Government, LCC and UCLAN we are bringing an important part of the town centre and Canalside Masterplan to reality.”

Tim Webber, Managing Director and Chairman of Barnfield Construction, said: “We’re really excited to be nearing completion of this scheme, which will be a great addition to the work we have already completed in partnership with the council in the Sandygate area.”

Professor Graham Baldwin, Vice-Chancellor of UCLan added, “Burnley is rapidly establishing itself as an attractive canal-side campus. This marks another key milestone in UCLan’s ambitious plans to increase student numbers to 4,000. It has been great to see the progress made towards creating another state-of-the-art educational facility for the university.”

County Coun. Aidy Riggott, Cabinet for Economic Development and Growth at Lancashire County Council said they had been ‘delighted’ to provide an investment of £1.1M into what is a ‘great example of ongoing regeneration work in Burnley, to repurpose a historic building and bring it back to life’.

He said: “The new campus will bring new jobs and further develop our already strong skills and education offer in East Lancashire. The new facilities will be an asset to the area and supported by wider improvements to make public transport more efficient and reliable, supporting better access to employment and educational facilities. This includes our Levelling Up East Lancashire plans that are being co-developed with communities in Burnley to improve travel choices and enhance the local area.”

Burnley MP Oliver Ryan said: “I’m completely over the moon to see Newtown Mill complete, the building is symbolic of our past and our future, heritage and innovation, reinvention and renewal coupled with history and memory. It's a temple of what we can be. We'll never be a place to rest on our laurels or let other people talk us down, we're a university town and I'm so glad UCLan is moving in soon. Working in partnership, I'll keep banging the drum for Burnley to get more of the funding we need.”