In mid-September 2023 the attention of drivers and pedestrians travelling along Manchester Road (the A56) through the Broadheath area of Altrincham may have been briefly caught by the sight of a digger demolishing an unassuming-looking brick building. This two...
The Broadheath Canal warehouse in 2010.In mid-September 2023 the attention of drivers and pedestrians travelling along Manchester Road (the A56) through the Broadheath area of Altrincham may have been briefly caught by the sight of a digger demolishing an unassuming-looking brick building. This two storey structure stood on the southern side of the Bridgewater Canal behind the Packet House pub. Research more than a decade ago had shown that it was an extremely early example of a canal warehouse, dating from the 1770s, making it one of the first of this type of structure to be built during the Industrial Revolution.
Why, then, was it being demolished rather than re-used and cherished? One answer can be found in the use of ‘Permitted development Rights’. Currently most unlisted buildings outside a conservation area can be demolished without planning permission. The move comes in the wake of the controversial demolition of the Crooked House pub in Dudley, West Midlands, which highlighted the vulnerability of unlisted buildings – irrespective of how loved by local communities they are. Industrial buildings are particularly vulnerable to demolition if not listed, scheduled, or lying within a Conservation Area. Permitted development rights allow for demolition works outside a conservation area for all types of building (barring a pub, wine bar, or other drinking establishment) as long as prior notice is given to the local authority of the means of demolition, under the Town and Country Palling (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.
The Broadheath Canal warehouse was first recorded by the South Trafford Archaeological Group in 2010, as part of research for the 250th anniversary of the opening of the Bridgewater Canal in 2011. It was then that its national (if not international) importance was first realised. The survey work showed that the building originally had three floors, as shown in a sketch from 1943, although this had been reduced to two in the 1940s. A blocked shipping hole lay in the northern gable facing the canal and the infilled interior canal arm ran half-way along the length of the building. It is possible but not entirely certain that this building was the warehouse described in 1769 by Arthur Young when he visited the wharf in that year. In 2022 the warehouse was added to the provisional local list of historic buildings in the Trafford area, giving some hope for its long-term future. Yet, without any formal protection there was nothing to stop the building being demolished. In its last years the small warehouse had become surrounded and hemmed in by anonymous, bland, multi-storey apartments. Now, in September 2023, a landmark building familiar to many in the area has been lost; a rare structure from the beginnings of the canal network in Britain demolished rather than saved; and the historic character of the Broadheath Wharf further eroded.
There is some hope for other historic buildings that lack protection in England, such as the Radium Building and even the Packet House in Broadheath. Just a week before the Broadheath warehouse was demolished the UK Government committed to consulting on requiring planning permission to demolish unlisted buildings. This was in response to amendments to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill to require planning permission for demolishing buildings put forward by Baroness Andrews, Lord Carrington, and Lord Shipley and promoted by the Victorian Society. The move comes in the wake of the controversial demolition of the Crooked House pub in Dudley, West Midlands, which highlighted the vulnerability of unlisted buildings – irrespective of how loved by local communities they are. All of this comes too late, of course, for the Broadheath Warehouse, and whilst urban landscapes naturally change and evolve, its important to celebrate their historic character and origins, maintaining a sense of place and community links with the past, which is what the amendment to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill is attempting to foster.
The Broadheath Canal Warehouse during demolition, September 2023. Image courtesy of Charlotte Starkey.