Ancoats Buildings Preservation Trust Ltd.

Beehive Mill Jersey Street Ancoats Manchester M4 6JG Tel: 0161 278 1755 E-mail: abpt@ancoatsbpt.co.uk

Ancoats Buildings Preservation Trust (ABPT) is a registered charity established in 1995 to preserve and enhance the neglected historic and architecturally significant buildings in the Ancoats Conservation Area as part of the wider regeneration strategy for this important area and for the benefit of the residents of Manchester and the wider community. The Trust seeks to do this by securing viable and economic uses for the historic buildings, taking them into its control as necessary to ensure their current restoration and appropriate reuse. ABPT works with historic building and regeneration agencies and with owners and developers to secure, make safe and waterproof key buildings so that deterioration can be stabilised. Once they have been 'enveloped' or 'mothballed', they can be kept in a condition ready to be converted and reused for new purposes.

Current projects cover buildings in central Ancoats that include the Italianate St Peter's Church and the massive 18th century cotton mill complex Murrays' Mills. The restoration of the former St Peter's Church was the Trust's first major project and a £500,000 'enveloping' project was undertaken between 1998-99. In July 2002, St Peter's secured a stage two Heritage Lottery Fund award in July 2002, matched by the Northwest Development Agency and £1.6 million 'shell repair' construction is scheduled to start in spring 2003. As the oldest remaining mill complex in Manchester, associated with the development of the use of steam engines to power spinning mules and the urbanization of the industrial revolution, the Murrays' Mills buildings are of international significance yet in a perilous condition. The proposed 'shell repair' restoration project will cost around £12.8 million.

Due to the demise of the cotton industry in Manchester and subsequent dereliction, without urgent action such key buildings will not survive and are at risk of being lost forever. The Trust can attract grant funding that is not available to the private sector in order to bridge the 'conservation deficit' that makes such repair projects uneconomic and conversion unviable. The Trust therefore describes itself as a 'developer of last resort.'