Heritage Open Day Tours 2019
5th August 2019
Heritage Open Days
Aizlewood’s Mill is taking part in Heritage Open Days for the fourth time this year and as a result of the popularity of our tours on the previous occasions we have decided to open for twice as long this year.
Aizlewood’s Mill is a successful business centre in Sheffield, and has been a base for many hundreds of organisations over the 28 years that we have been operating. Formerly a flour mill and built on behalf of John Aizlewood in 1861 it was derelict in the late 1980s and was rescued with an ingenious plan from Mike Bower, development worker for Sheffield Co-operative Development Group. Famously bought for just one pound and supported by grants from English Heritage and the European Regional Development Fund, with support from Sheffield City Council, the renovations took around a year and we were finally officially opened by Gordon Brown, then Opposition Spokesman for Trade and Industry in July 1990.
The Mill was renovated with a high degree of respect for its history and as much of the machinery that was still around when the building was bought is on display within the ground floor area. The most impressive item is the paternoster, otherwise called the ‘man lift’ which is an early example of an elevator and has been installed in the main stairwell. Visitors will be able to see this in all its glory even though it no longer operates. There are also a host of photographs taken during the renovation and some modern commemorative items that we have found when researching our own history.
We are not usually open to the public so Heritage Open Days are a rare chance for the public to get a flavour of what the Mill was like when it was operating as a flour mill and get to see the Business Centre that offers small units and virtual offices to our ever-growing range of customers and allows us to raise the finance to keep Aizlewood’s Mill alive for generations to come.
Heritage Open Days is running in September and we will be open to the public on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th for half-hour tours by appointment. If you would like to book onto one of the tours please contact us by email at reception@aizlewoodsmill.com or by telephoning 0114 282 3123. We don’t make a charge for the tours and you are welcome to use either of our free car parks. The smaller car park is situated directly in front of the building on Nursery Street or there is a large car park at the side on Spitalfields. Full directions can be found on our website.
