Queen Street Mill announced as recipient of Art Council England's £25m MEND fund
Queen Street Mill in Burnley has secured a sizeable slice of funding from Arts Council England to upgrade museums to protect their heritage and support the local economy.
Our internationally important textile museum is one of 29 museums up and down the country to receive a share of almost £25 million from the fourth round of the Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND).
Awards from £50,000 to £5 million will ensure local history in places across the country has a home for years to come.
Queen Street Mill will receive £813,115 – the highest grant awarded in the North West.
The money will help to fund urgent repairs to the Mill’s northlight roof to protect the collection of 300+ historic looms and machinery housed underneath the 1.5km of northlight windows.
Rebecca Ball, North Area Director, Arts Council England, said:
"This fourth round of MEND comes at a vital time for our region's museums. The North's heritage and cultural assets are second to none.
"They offer so much to their local communities as well as attracting significant levels of tourism, helping to grow the local economies of our towns and cities.
"The immensely important redevelopment work that these funds will support will be a welcome boost to cultural organisations across the North and will help make sure that more people can access the amazing creativity and culture our region has to offer."
The grant application to the MEND fund was made last summer after cabinet approved the move as part of wider proposal for repairs to the Grade I Listed building.
It was agreed that, if successful, the bid would see the grant funding boosted by a contribution from the county council.
Cabinet also agreed proposals to reopen the former Briercliffe Library in the entrance gallery, further enhancing the museum's offer.
Cllr Peter Buckley at Queen Street Mill
County Councillor Peter Buckley, cabinet member for Community and Cultural Services, said:
“Queen Street Mill is an important local heritage asset that houses industrial collections of historical significance.
"Following this successful bid, we now have the funding that will help preserve this Grade 1 listed building and the legacy of our industrial past.
"It also paves the way for a new library that will serve the whole community in Burnley and add to the value of this cultural gem of national importance."
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum is currently closed for the winter period, but will be open on Wednesdays and Thursdays 11am – 4pm as a community café until Thursday 27 March 2025.
To find out more about Queen Street Mill visit: Queen Street Mill Textile Museum - Lancashire County Council
Notes to editors
About MEND
The Museums Estates and Development fund is an open-access capital fund targeted at non-national Accredited museums and local authorities based in England to apply for funding to undertake vital infrastructure and urgent maintenance backlogs which are beyond the scope of day-to-day maintenance budgets.
About Arts Council
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. Our vision, set out in our strategy Let’s Create, is that by 2030, we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish, and where every one of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. Between 2023 and 2026 we will have invested over £467 million of public money from Government, alongside an estimated £250 million each year from The National Lottery, to help ensure that people in every part of the country have access to culture and creativity in the places where they live. Until Autumn 2025, the National Lottery is celebrating its 30th anniversary of supporting good causes in the United Kingdom: since the first draw was held in 1994, it has raised £49 billion and awarded more than 690,000 individual grants.
Visit the Arts Council website to learn more about their work.