Here’s the Grandfather of the Skyscraper

We’re staying near Shrewsbury just now, vegetable-garden-minding for friends. This mainly involves eating quantities of just-picked produce, to prevent the courgettes becoming marrows, the lettuces bolting, and the beans giving up bothering.

This is not however a full-time job, so I’ll be sending you postcards from time to time. The first is from Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings. This was built in 1797, the very first building in the world to use an entirely iron frame. And that made it fireproof. Mill buildings – full of dust, fluff, combustible fibres and fabrics – largely built round a wooden carcass, had a nasty habit of burning down. BUT an iron frame was fireproof. And then it offered another advantage. Buildings made this way turned out to be strong enough to support mulltiple storeys. The way was paved for the skyscaper to be developed.

And the long and varied story of this mill deserves to be told – another day.

Here’s one of those cast iron pillars holding the building up, with photos of more modern steel-framed buildings in the background.

Postcards from Shropshire (1)

Six Word Saturday.

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

36 thoughts on “Here’s the Grandfather of the Skyscraper”

  3. That second shot looks like an American city skyline. We have a giant courgette hanging around the kitchen. It’s supposedly destined to be made into piccalilli but is currently a handy doorstop so perhaps not.

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  15. I had a smile with your title and subject this week Margaret – an interesting concept to be sure! Certainly skyscrapers wouldn’t have had a chance if built from wood. Not sure if you planned to join us this week, but this one is a very good example of “sense of scale” 😊. The post made me want to see the building first-hand, just as a good image and story should!

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    1. I’m pretty involved in veg. garden duties here, with tourism and walking a close second, so sadly the challenge may fall by the wayside. It’s a fine building, and very typical of a mill building built during England’s Industrail Revolution.

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  16. The use of the iron frame when building this building was huge. Mills were such tinderboxes back in that era. In addition to iron frames, the development of elevators also supported the creation of skyscrapers. .

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  17. Pingback: Flaxmill Shadows – From Pyrenees to Pennines

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