You will have seen the devastating news that a fire ripped through our beloved Lodge Mill, Middleton in the early hours of Sunday morning.

There has been a lot of tears and heartbreak as we waited, stuck in a shocked numbness for the fire brigade to extinguish the flames, wondering how and should we go on, but the outpouring of love and compassion we have received from the local community and town has strengthened our resolve.

Sadly the fire has led to an almost total loss of the building with demolition taking the walls down to the first floor level / height. We are absolutely distraught at the loss of not only our beloved Lodge, but for the loss of all the local businesses that had made Lodge their home. We have spent every waking minute and every penny we had over the last seven years to bring this building back into use and created a fantastic community of truly talented, wonderful people along the way.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the building (it being an old silk / cotton weaving mill) it was uninsurable, particularly after the large fire that destroyed the back mill at Lodge several years ago.

We are so sad that all the work by our fantastic community and townsfolk has been lost due to the terrible fire but thankful that no one was injured and so far, no one has been able to identify what caused such a terrible thing to happen.

Our community group, Historic Cheapside based at Lodge Mill has also lost all of it's tools and props for the community events (Easter Duck Racing, Middleton Scarefest, Mill Stock & Christmas at Lodge Fair) which will hinder our ability to put on the community events in the short term.

Once the demolition work has been completed we will look to saving as much of the building as we can and potentially rebuilding what is practical to do so but the Engine House has survived and we hope to get it back up and running as soon as we possibly can which will give us all a temporary home for our businesses and our community events but for that we will need your help.

We will not give up and hope that you will join us – please spread the word that Lodge Mill still needs your help – help save the heritage we still have left – help save our community

Martin & Paula, owners of Lodge Mill