In April, Scottish Borders Council granted planning permission and listed constructing consent for Scotland’s first Mountain Bike Innovation Centre (MBIC) at Caerlee Mill in Innerleithen.
The thrilling new facility, scheduled to open in December 2024, can be housed inside a class B listed constructing. Learn on to learn the way our recommendation has supported the rehabilitation of one of many Scotland’s oldest mills for a inventive new use.
Constructing Caerlee Mill
An aerial view of Caerlee Mills advanced from the east in 1947 (© HES, Aerofilms Assortment)
Caerlee Mill, to the north of Innerleithen’s predominant road, occupies an essential place in Borders historical past. It was the Borders’s earliest custom-built textile mill powered by water. It was served by a lade from the Leithen Water which additionally powered Robert Smail’s Printing Works close by.
Caerlee Mill kickstarted Innerleithen’s progress through the industrial revolution and spurred related developments in its neighbouring Tweedside cities.
The earliest portion of the mill is a tall four-storey block inbuilt 1788 by native boy Alexander Brodie, who made his fortune in England. It was prolonged to the north and east within the early 1800s. An additional extension was added to the west a couple of a long time later. Quite a few ancillary buildings, together with weaving sheds and a boiler and engine home had been constructed all through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Caerlee ultimately turned the only survivor of 5 mills which as soon as operated in Innerleithen. When it lastly closed in 2013, it was the oldest regularly working textile mill in Scotland.
The mill when it was nonetheless in use
From water energy to pedal energy
Earlier than it closed, we helped Scottish Borders Council put together a planning temporary for the location. This recognized probably the most important buildings and any potentialities for his or her adaptation and reuse.
Quickly afterwards new housing was constructed to the south, as a part of an enabling growth for the restore of the mill. This resulted within the lack of the nineteenth and twentieth century weaving sheds. However the primary constructing was left empty and in danger, it’s future use unsure.
We first provided recommendation a few attainable mountain bike facility in Innerleithen in 2018. The world is understood for having a number of the finest mountain biking trails within the UK, and the city itself is on Scotland’s Nationwide Cycle Community.
Saved from demolition
Caerlee from the north displaying the engine and boiler home and chimney
We supported this new use for the mills, however the preliminary plans proposed the demolition of the boiler home, brick chimney and engine home. We didn’t suppose dropping such attention-grabbing and essential buildings was the perfect final result for the mill.
The redesigned plans will preserve and reuse these characterful whinstone buildings. The boiler home can be a Maker/Testing Lab and Design Studio, whereas the engine home will present safe cycle storage.
We additionally requested if the mill’s present, and failing, cement render/harling could possibly be eliminated and changed with a conventional lime combine. That is going forward, and can assist the constructing’s rubble partitions to breathe. It’s going to halt the stonework’s deterioration attributable to cement, while defending it towards the weather.
As an alternative of decreasing the tall stone partitions which encompass the mill, delicate openings can be inserted to permit mountain bikers, historical past lovers and passers-by to get a take a look at the location.
Walling and home windows
An authentic 1788 window to be retained and replicated within the older mill
And what of the mill’s interiors? Though altered within the post-war interval, the interiors retained a few of their authentic construction and significance. We needed to maintain some key options to make sure to assist guests perceive how the constructing has advanced by way of its life.
The primary scheme for the primary mill constructing proposed eradicating the inner ground and roof buildings, retaining solely the exterior walling. At our suggestion, the plans have been revised to attempt to retain the timber roof the place attainable. We’ve additionally requested that a sequence of ornamental forged iron columns are salvaged and reused inside the remodelled inside.
The constructing had a sequence of home windows, starting from the unique eighteenth century multi-pane home windows to post-war metal home windows. We requested that the few remaining 18th century home windows had been retained and that new home windows used an analogous design.
Going inexperienced
One of many early forged iron columns to be reused inside the constructing
The reuse of Caerlee Mill is sustainable and inexperienced, retaining the embodied power within the authentic mill’s building. Reuse of historic buildings like this one reduces the waste and landfill from demolition, in addition to the supply and transport of supplies concerned in any new constructing.
When Caerlee was a working mill, it was very important to get as a lot daylight as attainable into the constructing. Rooflights had been positioned on the south-facing aspect of the roof. Within the present plans, photo voltaic panels are to be put in the place the rooflights as soon as had been. This time, they’ll use the solar to assist the brand new constructing meet its aspiration to be internet zero.
These approaches align with nationwide coverage set out within the Fourth Nationwide Planning Framework, which was launched this yr.
A brilliant future
The mill and the city in 1947 (© HES, Aerofilms Assortment)
We’ve got labored in tandem (sorry) with Scottish Borders Council and the developer’s architects, to assist steer (sorry) the profitable reuse of Caerlee Mill and proceed its life cycle (not sorry). The proposals for Caerlee Mill will give an at-risk historic constructing a long-term future and a vibrant new use, permitting for wider public entry and understanding.
The unique mill supplied employment and financial prosperity for Innerleithen, and it seems set to take action once more! Giant numbers of latest guests are anticipated and it’s hoped that over 400 jobs can be created.
Caerlee Mill is a superb instance of Use and Adaptation of Listed Buildings and simply one in all many redundant buildings in Scotland that has discovered a sustainable new use. We stay up for the success of the Mountain Biking Centre!
Imagine it or not, the worlds of business heritage and mountain biking collide elsewhere on the weblog! Earlier this yr, our Designations Group uncovered historical past hidden amongst widespread mountain bike trails in Dumfries and Galloway:
