Burnley mill granted prestigious Grade I listing

Its role at the forefront of Burnley’s industrial past is one of great significance; its role now as an unparalleled reminder of that bygone era is one that gains more importance with each passing year.

While New Year’s honours were being handed out to the great and the good, this beautifully preserved 19th Century steam-powered Lancashire cotton weaving mill in Harle Syke was quietly being awarded a Grade I listing by English Heritage.

English Heritage called it the “most complete surviving textile mill in the UK” and it now stands as only the fourth building in the borough with a Grade I listing, alongside Towneley Hall, Gawthorpe Hall and Shuttleworth Hall, while it is now only the seventh mill in the UK to be awarded the prestigious honour.

Here historian Roger Frost talks about what makes the mill so special.