Greenside Mills, Skelmanthorpe
Application to destroy an important complex of small mills in Kirklees:
These three story stone edifices provide an important aspect to the narrative of a Yorkshire village, protruding above the roof pitches of the surrounding terraces and cottages of the village, indicating the close relationship between industry and domestic life. To lose buildings as vital as this to the Yorkshrie townscape (not to mention buildings that are perfectly robust) is a crime.
There is no other reason for this that to allow the developer to build and sell ‘products’ that are homogenous and can fit into their capital program.
Please Kirkleses, intervene, and start saving your beautiful historic villages! There are not that many left now.
Above is the suggested layout. I am absolutely certain this will have been devised at a desk by a technician with no other remit for design other than ‘as many units can you get on there please mate’.
Future generations will one day ask why we made this country so boring.
East Ardsley Methodist Church
Small Methodist church to be demolished in the centre of East Ardsley:
A village already stripped bare of much of its history, particularly along the high street, the purge will continue with the loss of this modest but vital Methodist church.
It is not about the merits of the individual building, but what the building embodies – clearly not much capital was available from the Wesleyans, but nonetheless the built a temple in this small industrial village.
The built form that constitutes the centre of a settlement is so vital to a sense of place. We can not judge buildings by their individual merit, but by what they contribute to the overall street form. Planning mechanisms that protect this are scarce and seldom called upon.
The Demolition Register 