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People can take a stroll in the Mill Race area of Lancaster and now discover a fascinating story told in a new trail and series of plaques.

To launch this part of the Lancaster High Streets Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) programme, guided tours of the area took place and thanks to new digital and paper trails, anyone can now follow in their footsteps.

“During the HSHAZ project, we have uncovered so many interesting facts about the Mill Race area,” said engagement officer, Rachael Bowers.

“Last year, we asked people to vote for the places they thought deserved a green heritage plaque, and now the plaques are up we are sharing the stories behind them.”

The Waring & Gillow buildings viewed from Cable Street in 1962, now have a green plaque.

Twelve new plaques have been created and two existing plaques on The Shakespeare and Grand Theatre in St Leonard’s Gate have been restored during the project.

The plaques, guided tour and trails have been created thanks to support from Historic England and co-funded by Lancaster City Council. The HSHAZ is a four-year £2m plus project and is part of the government’s national programme of investment into high streets. It includes capital works, community engagement and cultural events, and will end in March 2024.

The Mill Race is a channel of water, now underground, looping off and back into the River Lune. It’s a special area because it encapsulates Lancaster’s history, influencing the positioning of streets and buildings and being home to a number of industries.

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Damside Street, June 1966. Photo courtesy of Lancaster City Museums.

Among the streets in the area are North Road, St Leonard’s Gate, Stonewell and Chapel Street.

However, it’s one of the lesser known – and now almost hidden streets – which has been awarded one of the new plaques. Pitt Street, off St Leonard’s Gate, is highlighted as one of the many courts, yards and alleys which once accommodated worker housing and saw the Mill Race’s population quadruple in the 1800s.

Yet among that population were also wealthy merchants who helped to build St John’s Church, which is being refurbished as part of the HSHAZ.

However, the new trail doesn’t ignore the fact that many of these merchants made their money from the transatlantic slave trade in the 1700s and 1800s.

There's now a new green plaque in Pitt Street, once a very poor area of Lancaster.

Slaves produced sugar, dyes and mahogany used by local businesses and one Mill Race resident, George Burrow, owned plantations in the Virgin Islands and received government compensation when slavery was abolished in 1833.

Perhaps the most famous company to site its business in the Mill Race was Gillows – founded in around 1730 – and its former factory and showroom in North Road now bears a plaque in recognition of the important part it played in Lancaster’s history.

Yet the lesser known industries of the Mill Race are also acknowledged including dying, sugar refining, stained glass making and manufacturing of railway engines and horse harnesses.

The area was also the home of one of the country’s first purpose-built car showrooms, now Greens pub in North Road, which has a new green plaque denoting its unusual past.

Once a carriage builder's showroom, now a furniture shop in St Leonard's Gate.

And, by contrast, a plaque now also adorns a building in Phoenix Street built as a coffee tavern to draw workers away from pubs.

An interactive digital trail of the Mill Race is now available online at www.lancaster.gov.uk/millraceheritagetrail and printed copies are available from Lancaster City Museum and Visitor Information Centre from April 7.

Fascinating facts uncovered about the history of Lancaster's old industries in the 1700s and 1800s