How Middleton’s revival could be grist to the mill for Britain’s struggling towns
Source: The Guardian ·
Turnaround initiated by Andy Burnham and led by Steve Coogan could provide blueprint for other neglected areas• Save high street by creating ‘level playing field’ with online rivals, Burnham urgedThe former England footballer Paul Scholes and the actor Steve Coogan stare out from beside a fish and chip shop in Middleton, near Manchester. Looming over a mural of the pair – and the whole town – is…
From the source
The former England footballer Paul Scholes and the actor Steve Coogan stare out from beside a fish and chip shop in Middleton, near Manchester. Looming over a mural of the pair – and the whole town – is an enormous former cotton mill that powered its economy a century ago. The deafening looms and spindles of Warwick Mill fell silent decades ago, replaced in recent years by TikTok “urban explorers” who share videos of themselves crawling through its abandoned shell. Yet the old building may have life inside it yet: last month Rochdale council wrestled Warwick Mill out of the hands of its absentee owner, a millionaire Chinese businessman, under whom it had been derelict for years. Now the Grade II-listed site is at the centre of plans Andy Burnham believes could turn Middleton, where he was once a trainee journalist, into a blueprint for the future of Britain’s struggling towns. “It used to be good,” said Dorothy Kersh, in the town square with her husband, Ernie, both 83. “In the 70s…