Gym plans for Queensbury's historic Black Dyke Mills submitted to council

A planning application to convert a section of Grade II listed Black Dyke Mills in Queensbury has been submitted to Bradford Council by Macclesfield based The Lowry Partnership.

The business would be based in a section fronting Brighouse Road, currently classed as industrial. The plans call for bricked up windows and doors on the Brighouse Road elevation to be reinstated.

The application says: “The proposed work will not affect or damage the fabric of the existing site.

“New windows openings and lobbies will help create a practical and comfortable space for gym user and member of staff.”

Black Dyke Mills, which date from the early 1800s, was established by John Foster, a British manufacturer of worsted cloth, who married Ruth Briggs, daughter of a landowner from Queensbury, in 1819.

By 1851 the complex was dominating the Queensbury landscape and at the Great Exhibition of that year he was awarded first prize for alpaca and mohair fabrics and the gold medal for yarns. On his death in 1879, he was succeeded by his son William, who had been made a full partner in the business of John Foster & Son in 1842.

The company, which employed hundreds of workers in the village through the 19th and 20th centuries, continues to weave mohair, cashmere and worsted made from the highest quality merino wool, as well as other noble fibres, into luxury fabric for fashion houses, designers, tailors and retailers across the globe today after moving operations from Queensbury several years ago.

The mills, which have now been turned into industrial units for dozens of businesses, are also synonymous with the world-famous Black Dyke Band, formerly John Foster & Son Black Dyke Mills Band, one of the oldest brass bands in the world, which has a base in Sandbeds, Queensbury, yards away from the complex.

A decision on the gym application is expected early in the new year.