Its high-time we recognised the forefather of modern skyscrapers... a former mill in Shropshire

WHEN you gaze over the skyline of any major world city, it's hard to imagine it all began with a dirty, formerly semi-derelict mill in the West Midlands. But the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings is one of Britain's most important surviving buildings and the grandfather of today's skyscrapers... even though there's a good chance you've never heard of it.

- By Karen Rockett

English Heritage will be opening the newly restored mill following a £28million refurbishment from today the conservation charity's first new paid visitor attraction in 21 years. The incredible Flaxmill Maltings in 1797 was the first building in the world to be constructed using a complete iron frame.

The design quite literally changed architectural history, making modern high-rise buildings and skyscrapers possible.

Shropshire was then one of the centres of Britain's burgeoning Industrial Revolution. The nearby Iron Bridge over the River Severn, which opened in 1781, was the first cast-iron structure in the world.

Alongside the factories that followed in the mill's wake, it was also the catalyst for social change via labour reform movements and subsequent legislation to improve working conditions including the 1833 Factory Act, for which the government received testimony from former workers at the Flaxmill outside Shrewsbury town centre.

English Heritage's visitor experience manager for the site, Simon Cranmer, explains: "It is a globally important historic building, just as important as the Iron Bridge and yet virtually no one outside of the local area has ever heard of it.

"Name any famous skyscraper, from the Flat Iron Building, the 22-storey, 285ft-tall steel-framed triangular building at 175 Fifth Avenue in New York, to the Empire State Building, the Shard and the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which stands at 2,700ft, and they all owe their origins to the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings.

"Apart from its architectural significance, it casts a light on our country's industrial past and it is so important it has been saved from dereliction. It really is a landmark to more than 200 years of industrial history."