The British countryside is littered with old buildings—abandoned farm houses, vacant schools, worn-down factories from another time. The nonprofit conservation group Save Britain’s Heritage is on a mission to find new owners for some of the country’s old architectural gems—and it takes an unusual approach to do so.
Many of the candidates have historical significance. Take the Musgrave Engine House in Wales, which was established in 1910 to power the copper mill next door. It’s one of the few surviving factories with an original steam engine intact. Another building featured, a church in Manchester called St. John’s the Evangelist, was built by a famous local architect in the second half of the 19th century, J. Medland Taylor. It was closed this year, just after celebrating its 150th anniversary. There’s the Tonedale Mills in Wellington, which date to 1821 (the original timber building was built in 1754 and was destroyed in a fire). Some 3,600 people once worked there; the building’s owners pioneered the use of khaki dye for soldiers’ uniforms in the Boer War at the end of the 19th century. The exposed brick facade make it a prime candidate for a housing development (there were plans for one before 2008, but they were abandoned).
The catalog is a really simple and clever approach to getting the word out about properties that are ideal for adaptive reuse. So whether you’re a developer looking for opportunities in the British countryside or just happen to love fabulous photographs of old, ruined buildings, this compendium of centuries-old architecture is worth a second glance.