{"id":500072,"date":"2026-03-28T12:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T12:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500072\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T12:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T12:40:09","slug":"huge-fire-rips-through-historic-big-mill-in-staffordshire-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/500072\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge fire rips through historic Big Mill in Staffordshire | UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A fire broke out at a Grade II-listed building, which is more than 165 years old, in Staffordshire.<\/p>\n<p>Officers were called at 9.35pm on Friday to reports that The Big Mill on Mill Street, Leek, was on fire, Staffordshire Police said.<\/p>\n<p>No-one was injured and a fire investigation is taking place, the force added.<\/p>\n<p>Police announced on Saturday morning that an 18-year-old man from Leek had been arrested on suspicion of arson with recklessness as to whether life was endangered and was in custody.<\/p>\n<p>Drone footage showed huge flames covering the entire building, with the roof no longer in place and a section of a wall missing.<\/p>\n<p>Read more from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/alarming-report-reveals-number-of-uk-meningitis-deaths-with-warning-over-falling-vaccination-rates-13525055\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#8216;Alarming&#8217; report reveals number of UK meningitis deaths<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/all-we-want-is-justice-for-amy-thousands-gather-at-vigil-for-mother-after-man-charged-with-murder-13525384\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Crowds gather at vigil for mother after man charged with murder<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Smoke was still smouldering from the building on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Various road closures were put in place and officers supported residents who had been evacuated from their homes as a precaution, the force added.<\/p>\n<p>The Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service advised people not to drive near the area and those living nearby to keep doors and windows closed. Residents claimed the derelict building appeared &#8220;completely burned out&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" loading=\"lazy\" intrinsicsize=\"768x432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/skynews-fire-staffordshire_7205311.png\"   alt=\"Pic: Up in the Sky Droneography&#10;\" data-testid=\"article-image-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Image:<br \/>\n        Pic: Up in the Sky Droneography<\/p>\n<p>The six-storey mill dates back to 1860 and is an important example of a large-scale building for the silk industry, according to the Historic England website.<\/p>\n<p>It represents one of the earliest mill buildings on this scale in Leek, the public body adds.<\/p>\n<p>It also notes that the building is a good example of the mill-style developed by William Sugden, the leading mill architect at work in Leek at this time.<\/p>\n<p>The site had been derelict for several years and a planning application had previously been submitted to convert the building to 55 apartments.<\/p>\n<p>Dame Karen Bradley, the Conservative Staffordshire Moorlands MP, said on social media that she was &#8220;so sad to see the terrible fire at the Big Mill&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fire broke out at a Grade II-listed building, which is more than 165 years old, in Staffordshire.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-500072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}