A bright future for Sunny Bank Mills
WORK IS underway on a £2m project to transform the Sunny Bank Mills complex, in Farsley, near Leeds.
The mills, once the home of Yorkshire Television’s Emmerdale and Heartbeat, are being regenerated as part of the Weaver’s Yard project. The regeneration will create modern work and living space.
Owners and directors John and William Gaunt have invested £7m in Sunny Bank Mills over the past ten years to regenerate the 10-acre site and to help the complex reclaim its status as the prime employer in Farsley.
Now the central part of the estate is being remodelled to create open spaces and to reestablish the prominence of historic mill buildings.
Leeds-based CBM Construction is the main contractor on the project and the work is scheduled to be completed this summer.
William Gaunt said: “We have already created 355 jobs at Sunny Bank Mills, with more than 80 companies on site.
“This new phase, which will be developed over the next few years, will ultimately create many more and regenerate these lovely old buildings.
“We now have the flexibility, the time and the confidence to deliver a sustainable future for Sunny Bank Mills.
“The remodelling of the heart of Sunny Banks Mills will
This is the most ambitious exciting development yet.
John Gaunt, co-owner and director at Sunny Bank Mills.
ensure that the mill woodland is protected, while mill ponds will provide fantastic amenity space for everyone who lives and works here. It will also provide 95 more parking spaces.
“We believe very strongly that we must preserve the legacy of Sunny Bank Mills for future generations.
“We are wholly our committed to the site and to the Farsley community, encouraging the community to become involved in what we are doing here.
“We have retained and refurbished existing historic buildings such as Sandsgate, the Mending Rooms and the 1912 Mill to create new jobs and to make Sunny Bank Mills the economic powerhouse of Farsley once again.”
The 1912 Mill is where Heartbeat and Emmerdale were filmed.
John Gaunt said: “We have embarked on an exciting new stage of the regeneration of Sunny Bank Mills by selectively demolishing some commercially unviable buildings, totalling 65,000 sq ft, in the heart of the site.”
He added: “This is the biggest and most ambitious exciting development yet at Sunny Bank Mills.”