Dudleys Consulting Engineers has been appointed by Lovell Partnerships to advise on the new development of 46 family homes on a 4.6-acre historic mill site in Skelmanthorpe, Kirklees.
Lovell recently secured planning consent to redevelop Greenside Mill, a former textile production site located between Huddersfield and Wakefield. Built in circa 1770 the mill changed hands several time but after the closure of Dawson Fabrics in 2006 the site remained vacant and fell into disrepair.
After assisting Lovell with civil and structural evaluations to support planning approval, Dudleys is now providing detailed support to prepare the challenging site for redevelopment.
Peter Dixon, director at Dudleys said, “Extensive evaluations were required to help secure planning consent for new development proposals, where past attempts had failed. The site is bounded to the north by the Whistlestop Valley family railway visitor attraction and there is an 18-metre level difference from one side of the site to the other. With the planning desire to maximise development potential, we had to overcome significant technical challenges to adequately address the level changes.
“Given the derelict nature of the existing buildings and the relic materials within, we needed to undertake initial building safety surveys to inform of any dangerous areas and facilitate surveys required, most notably for the heritage record of the relatively untouched building interior and contents.”
As demolition progresses to allow construction of the new housing scheme to start in Spring 2023, Dudleys is undertaking a number of investigations to former shallow coal mining zones and existing drainage features to allow redevelopment works whilst maintaining a wetland area at the lower eastern point of the site.
Dudleys is working alongside Sten Architecture, Books Ecological and PB Planning to assist Lovell Partnerships in delivering Garrett Grove by early 2024.
Dudleys has extensive experience in providing structural and engineering solutions for historic site redevelopment. The consultancy team is retained to advise on the ongoing redevelopment of Sunnybank Mills in Leeds and Globe Mills in Slaithwaite and is also assisting Keighley and Worth Valley Railway Preservation Society across its heritage portfolio.
