Our latest exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum is gorgeous photography by Neil Horsley, looking at the repurposing and re-use of Mill Buildings. He kindly agreed to write this blog for about the project.
He writes:
Mills Transformed is a project which celebrates the renovation and repurposing of former textile mills by inspiring people. Over the last 3 years I’ve visited and photographed over 30 mills across the north of England which have been regenerated and reborn. What I have tried to do is also tell the human-interest stories – behind every mill transformation is invariably one or two key individuals who have had the vision, passion and persistence to drive forward these complex development schemes. So, Mills. Transformed is as much about people as it is about property.
The original project came about via my membership of Bingley Camera Club. The Club mounted an exhibition called Mills and Hills at Cliffe Castle and entries were invited that reflected these themes.
During lock-down I often walked past Bents Mill at Hallas Bridge and was intrigued as to what was inside. The exhibition gave me a perfect excuse to ask to visit and photograph the mill. The owners were extremely helpful and told me about the history of Bents Mill and how they had undertaken a seven-year restoration process.
This led to me contacting further mills and their renovators, a web site for the project and ultimately the offer from a London-based independent publisher to produce a Mills Transformed book.
To coincide with the book publication, I’ve been extremely lucky to be given the chance to do a Mills Transformed exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum which is the perfect venue – the museum is itself housed in the 150-year-old former Moorside spinning mills.
So, the challenge has been how to distil down a 32,000-word book containing over 140 images into a coherent photo essay /exhibition which neatly fits within the Industrial Museum Café Gallery.
The process has involved a number of visits to the Museum and discussions with member of staff Heather Millard who has been extremely supportive and helpful. This has been followed by a great deal of hand wringing as to how to tell the story of the project through a small number of themes, what interpretation materials to provide and then how to select no more than 25 images from the 100’s I have accumulated.
As previously mentioned the project is as much about the people behind the renovation as it is about the mills that have been renovated.
Many of those who I have encountered, although from a range of backgrounds, have a number of common characteristics. They have enormous tenacity and persistence in overcoming the financial and administrative hurdles and negativity associated with undertaking large scale building restoration projects. They are initially attracted to the challenge of preserving a unique building but this evolves into an emotional commitment and a sense of civic duty to bring about the preservation of local landmarks.
For many the restoration of a mill becomes a life-time’s work, spanning a number of years and becomes their personal legacy. They develop a bond with the mill and invest something of themselves in restoring these buildings. It was therefore important to try to pay tribute to such mill renovators and give a feel for the before-and-after state of the buildings they had helped to save. So, the exhibition had to reflect their stories.
Finally, I decided on the following four themes –
- Millscapes – the role of mills in placemaking and shaping northern landscapes.
- Mill opportunities– the potential opportunities created by vacant and derelict mills.
- Mill renovators – the people who have, often against all odds, brought new life to derelict mills together with examples of renovation projects.
- Mill futures– how can further mills be regenerated and reborn?
There then began the long task of trying to find images to illustrate these themes. Finally, I came up with a selection of 25 prints which were sent for printing at DSCL, who I would recommend and these were then mounted by the wonderful Sarah at Park Lane Studio.
I originally had a sponsor lined up to cover the cost of the exhibition but unfortunately they dropped out meaning it was suddenly down to me to fund all the exhibition costs. This meant having to learn how to use Affinity Publisher in order to design interpretation boards and pulling in various favours from Bingley Camera Club including the loan of all their picture frames and help form Ron and Terry in installing the exhibition.
In parallel has been the job of promoting the event to everyone I know and alternating between worrying that either too few or too many people might actually come to the launch. Would there be enough cake? (Editor’s Note: There was enough cake!)
On Saturday 16th November we held a combined exhibition and book launch event attended by 40 people. The factory where the books are printed had suffered a flood and it was unclear whether we would receive a shipment in time for the event leaving the prospect of a book launch with no books. However, the books finally arrived the day before the event and we sold 28 copies on the day which was far more than expected. The book is also now on sale at the Industrial Museum and Salts mill prior to its official publication date of 28th January 2025.
The exhibition has so far had a great response with lots of positive comments and feedback. It runs for just over 3 months from the 16th November 2024 to the 9th February 2025 so plenty of opportunities to visit it and also have a look round the fascinating Bradford Industrial museum collection.
If you are interested in the Mills Transformed project, would like to discuss aspects of the exhibition or book, or have suggestions about future mills to be documented please contact me at www.mills-transformed.com/contact
