Lancaster is well known for its castle and fine Georgian buildings yet there’s even more fascinating history hidden under the feet of those who live in, work in, and visit the city.
The water mill race powered the early industrialisation of Lancaster, running through an area which produced sugar, ships and large companies including Gillows furniture makers.
The north east side of the city centre was – and still is – home to the Grand Theatre, the country’s third oldest continually operating theatre.
And for the past three years, a programme of cultural activity has aimed to reveal more of the mill race’s secrets and bring them alive.
The Mill Race: Flow of Change programme, overseen by Lancaster Arts at Lancaster University, coincided with redevelopment work in the High Street Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) led by Lancaster City Council and funded primarily by Historic England.
And since 2021, the mill race has inspired musicians, artists, dancers, film-makers and writers to tell its story and look to its future.
Perhaps one of the most significant recent chapters in that story was Storm Desmond in 2015 which caused the mill race to flood, badly damaging much of the area and providing the catalyst for a new approach to its redevelopment.
‘If you just see regeneration as being about buildings and the streetscape, you miss many opportunities,’ said Lancaster Arts director, Jocelyn Cunningham. ‘It has to be about people and engaging them first. Doing creative activities in a place enables people to have a relationship with that place and form an attachment to it.’
One of the first events – Flow: Marking the Mill Race – was also Jocelyn’s highlight of the entire programme and involved 100 people, including schoolchildren and visitors, lining the A6 under which the mill race runs, and finishing at the Grade 2* listed, yet unused, St John’s Church.
Led by artists David Boultbee and Loz Kaye, they recreated sounds to reflect those of the mill race below.
Pupils from Dallas Road Primary School were so inspired by the experience that they produced poems which Loz used as lyrics to a song performed at The River Runs event as part of the programme’s final celebrations.
‘If Flow: Marking the Mill Race was about how we can make something invisible, visible, The River Runs was about making it heard,’ said Loz.
And The River Runs launched Lancashire County of Song which Loz directs and which is seen as just one of the legacies of the Mill Race cultural programme with events from Rossendale to Poulton-le-Fylde.
Bringing the Georgian St John’s Church back as a venue is another Flow legacy. The mill race runs underneath the church, so the Storm Desmond floods caused devastating damage which is still being repaired.
However, the church was still able to provide space for performances and exhibitions.
‘The cultural programme showed what we can do with this space even in its current condition so the potential to have these kind of activities long-term is really good,’ said Elanor Johnson, regeneration officer for the Churches Conservation Trust.
As well as hosting The River Runs, St John’s was also the venue for A Place for Grief, an art installation exploring what it means to lose connection to a place, which could go on a national tour.
Elanor’s personal favourite event at the church was Spill The Mill Race, a combination of storytelling, clog dancing and display of ceramic jugs, all with input from local people. The jugs have gone on to be displayed as part of the Standfast & Barrack’s centenary exhibition at Lancaster City Museum, at the Maritime Museum, and in a new pottery studio.
St John’s has also become an important venue for the annual Light Up Lancaster festival each November, hosting On The Curled Clouds, an interactive stormy sky inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest; and Butterfly Dream: Making the Invisible Visible, featuring more than 1,600 resin butterflies which has since also been displayed in Worcester.
In total, the Flow of Change programme has produced 43 events, involved 41 artists and engaged more than 14,500 people.
And among the 17 commissions were those chosen by the cultural consortium, a group of 12 local people ranging from heritage enthusiasts to retired town planners.
‘I wanted to be involved with the Mill Race cultural programme to form a deeper connection to Lancaster’s history,’ said consortium member and retired art teacher, Anita Chamberlain.
‘I think it could be used as a model and taken to areas elsewhere in Lancaster. It could even be taken to Morecambe and used alongside the Eden Project.’
New murals in the Mill Race area now provide permanent visual reminders of Flow and its impact seen by the hundreds of people who pass through Lancaster city centre every day.
‘The Mill Race is now on people’s radar when before, it was a place that people just drove through,’ said Lancaster City Council’s regeneration officer, Kate Smith.
‘We have not addressed all the issues in the area but the cultural programme has raised its profile and expectation of what happens next.’
* A booklet - Experiencing the Mill Race through Arts and Culture - is now available at Lancaster’s City and Maritime Museums and a film is available online at lancasterarts.org and for information on the entire project, go to lancaster.gov.uk/millrace.
