Looking down St. Leonardsgate. Photo credit: Jonny Bean Photography

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Green Heritage Plaques - Mill Race High Streets Heritage Action Zone/
Help choose green plaques for the Mill Race!

Help choose green plaques for the Mill Race!

Lancaster’s High Streets Heritage Action Zone aims to improve the appearance and appreciation of historic buildings in the Mill Race area.

We need your help highlighting the people, buildings and stories that make this area special! We have identified 19 possible places where a green heritage plaque could be erected. We want to know which places you would prioritise, and hear your ideas for other plaques in the Mill Race area. They can celebrate people, buildings, businesses, or historical events.

The Mill Race area has been shaped by the watercourse running through it, first providing water and powering mills in the area, and later bringing opportunities for trade, manufacturing and employment, resulting in the development of businesses and housing.

This interactive map shows potential plaques, and the current 2 plaques which are already in the High Street Heritage Action Zone: www.lancaster.gov.uk/HAZplaques. We suggest you review this before completing the survey.

This interactive map shows all the existing plaques and memorials in Lancaster, which are predominantly to the west of the city centre: https://lancaster.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/attachmentviewer/index.html?appid=c4ccf12345254ef9aa2f90a8761ba60c

The Mill Race

The presence of water in the area attracted people and businesses and continues to impact on our lives. Which of these plaques would you choose to remember this history? Please select as many as you wish

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Calkeld Lane - ‘Calkeld’ derives from the Norse for ‘cold spring’. This street name was first recorded in 1200s, when Calkeld Well was an important water source for the town. The well continued to be used into the 1800s.

2-4 Damside St- Originally a dyehouse built around 1800 and leased to dyer Jeremiah Wane. The mill race provided water needed for dyeing. Bought by dyer Thomas Cunningham in the 1880s, his son, James, established a watchmakers and jewellers here.

4-8 Damside Street - The mill race – a narrow channel originally carrying water to power the cornmill – passes under the buildings here. This was later an important area for dyeworks.

10-14 Damside Street - This was the location of a cornmill from the 1570s. Robert Dalton leased land from Lancaster Corporation in 1574, giving him rights to build mills and use the watercourse. The mill was demolished in 1769.

Trade
The Mill Race’s proximity to the Port of Lancaster allowed businessmen to import raw materials, but also to be involved in the Transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, and linked industries. Which of these plaques would you choose to remember this history? Please select as many as you wish

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Butterfield Street - The Butterfield family were Quaker apothecaries, ropemakers and merchants who were active in trading enslaved Africans from the 1740s onwards. The family owned the nearby dye works, and built numbers 7, 9 and 11 Chapel Street.

Church of St John the Evangelist, North Road - Built in 1755 to serve Lancaster’s growing population, St John’s shows Lancaster’s Georgian prosperity. Many prominent merchants with links to the slave trade are buried here.

Gillows Showroom -The grand scale of this building embodies the firm’s success, which soon after merged with Waring of Liverpool to become Waring and Gillow. The mill race was still an open channel here until the showroom was built.

Sugar House Alley - Lancaster’s first sugar house was built by John Hodgson around 1680 and run with the Lawson family. Enslaved labour on Caribbean plantations allowed merchants to meet Britain’s taste for cheap sugar.

Religion, service and education

At one time on the fringes of Lancaster, the Mill Race area provided space for a hospital, churches and learning institutions. Which of these plaques would you choose to remember this history? Please select as many as you wish

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Centenary Church, Rosemary Lane - Built to celebrate the centenary of the Independent Chapel in 1881, Centenary Congregational Church closed in 1967. It became a lecture theatre and common room for Lancaster University in the 1960s.

St Leonards Gate - This road probably has Roman origins but gained its name from St Leonard’s leper hospital. Built outside the town in 1189, the hospital accommodated 9 patients. Remains of the buildings survived until the 1800s.

Church of St John the Evangelist, North Road - Built in 1755 to serve Lancaster’s growing population, St John’s is linked to architects Henry Sephton and Thomas Harrison. Built by public subscription, St John’s shows Lancaster’s Georgian prosperity.

St Leonard’s House, St Leonards Gate - Originally part of the Gillows Works, the sandstone building dates from 1881 and the reinforced concrete framed building is 1920s. Lancaster University occupied them in 1964 while its campus took was being built.

Wartime service
Some buildings in the Mill Race reflect how people and businesses adapted to meet the challenges of war. Which of these plaques would you choose to remember this history? Please select as many as you wish

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Phoenix Street Drill Hall - This 1894 building was built for the Lancaster Rifle Volunteers, who evolved into the King’s Own Royal Regiment in 1908. Soldiers trained here before being sent to the Western Front during WWI. It was decommissioned in 1990.

27 North Road - Built next to the ‘Old Mill’, Gillows’ saw mill, and close to the Work’s entrance, this hangar-style building may relate to the company’s wartime work making aircraft parts, during WWI and WWII.

Manufacturing
The Mill Race was once a heavily industrialised area with workshops, factories and showrooms. Which of these plaques would you choose to remember this history? Please select as many as you wish

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Gillows’ Showroom, 25 North Road - This purpose-built showroom was designed by local architects Paley and Austin in 1882 using a free Elizabethan style. Its opulent design showcased Gillows’ decorative furnishings.

Phoenix Street - Phoenix Street takes its name from the adjacent Phoenix Foundry. Established in the 1830s, it became one of Lancashire’s largest foundries, boasting 3 cupola furnaces, cranes and a machinery workshop. It closed in the 1920s.

11 Chapel Street - Established by plumber and glazier William Abbott in 1860, Abbott and Co. specialised in ecclesiastical stained glass. The 3-storey warehouse to the rear was used as a workshop. The company operated from these premises until 1996.

63 North Road – This 1902 car showroom was designed by Lancaster architects Austin and Paley in a Baroque Revival style. Built for William Atkinson, it is thought to be one of the earliest purpose-built car showrooms in the country.

113 St Leonard’s Gate - This former carriage showroom was purpose built for William Richmond in 1899. His Lodge Street carriage works was one of a number in the area in the late 1800s.

Working class life
The factories and industries that developed in the Mill Race in the 1800s attracted workers who needed housing and social activities. Which of these plaques would you choose to remember this history? Please select as many as you wish

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Pitt Street – Densely packed worker housing was built close to the Mill Race in the 1800s. Shared privies emptied into the Mill Race, and at high tide waste flooded basement homes and contaminated drinking water, leading to cholera and typhus outbreaks.

Phoenix Rooms, Phoenix Street - Originally a Lancaster Coffee Tavern Company coffee house giving working men an alternative to drinking in pubs. Designed by Edward Howard Dawson in a Baroque Revival style, the building became a working men’s club.

Several notable individuals are linked to the Mill Race area and have made an impact on its appearance and sanitation. Which of these plaques would you choose to remember this history? Please select as many as you wish

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Centenary Church, Rosemary Lane - An early Gothic church designed by Hetherington and Oliver of Carlisle. It was built after the congregation outgrew its High Street chapel and school, in the converted Lawson Mansion at 50 St Leonard’s Gate.

Church of St John the Evangelist - Thought to be the work of architect Henry Sephton (1686-1756) who also worked on the Priory Church. Thomas Harrison (1744-1829), designer of Skerton Bridge & several Castle buildings, is responsible for the tower.

Phoenix Rooms, Phoenix Street - Edward Howard Dawson designed this 1887 coffee house as well as the Sunday School building at the corner with St Leonard’s Gate. His death at the age of 33 cut short his career.

Phoenix Street - Edmund Sharpe (b.1809) owned the Phoenix Foundry from 1854. A notable architect and owner of the Grand Theatre, he worked with Richard Owen to instigate sanitary reforms including instigating piped water and was Mayor of Lancaster.

Phoenix Street Drill Hall - designed by Lancaster architects Paley, Austin & Paley this Baroque Revival style building was completed in 1894. Volunteer units were a source of local pride and this is reflected in the grand architecture.

St Leonard’s Gate - Edward Denis de Vitre (1806-1878) lived on this street and was a physician, borough, and county magistrate. He encouraged sanitary reform in the town. He twice held the position of mayor and helped found the Royal Albert Hospital.

Sugar House Alley - The Lawsons were involved in establishing a second sugar house, which involved several owners known to have been plantation owners or slave traders, including Abraham Rawlinson Sr, James Hargreaves, James Atherton and Thomas Giles.

The Glassworks, Butterfield St - Brothers Thomas & William Butterfield part-owned several Lancaster slave ships, including the Expedition. Both held the position of Treasurer of the County, and William was Mayor of Lancaster and Constable of the Castle.

Pitt Street - Richard Owen is more famous for his contributions to natural history but through his 1845 ‘Report on the State of Lancaster’ he played a vital part in addressing sanitary reform in Lancaster and across England.

2-4 Damside Street - Jeremiah Wane (1787-1852) was a dyer, town councillor, Superintendent of St Anne’s Sunday School and also a ‘flesh-looker’, responsible for checking the conditions of local butcher shops.

11 Chapel Street - Abbott & Co. glassworks was established by William Abbott in 1860. They designed stained glass windows for architects Paley & Austin, later becoming well-known for modernist designs such as Lancaster Priory’s 1966 St Thomas window.

63 North Road – This 1905 car showroom was designed by Lancaster architects Austin & Paley. They built many churches in Lancashire including St Barnabas, Morecambe and St Luke, Slyne, but also worked on Lancaster Royal Infirmary.

If you could choose the plaques, which would they be? Please select up to 10.

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2-4 Damside Street

Pitt Street

Centenary Church, Rosemary Lane

Church of St John the Evangelist, North Road

Gillows’ Showroom, 25 North Road

11 Chapel Street

Phoenix Rooms, Phoenix Street

Phoenix Street Drill Hall

63 North Road

St Leonard’s House, St Leonards Gate

Phoenix Street

10-14 Damside Street

Sugar House Yard

Calkeld Lane

St Leonards Gate

4-8 Damside Street

113 St Leonard’s Gate

27 North Road

Butterfield Street

Are there any other places or histories within the Mill Race Heritage Action Zone that you think deserve a plaque? Please tell us below.