Two Leeds museums closed after flood damage

Major clean-up operations are underway at two Leeds museums caught up in severe flooding over Christmas.

Leeds Industrial Museum in Armley and Thwaite Mills in Stourton will both remain closed to the public until further notice while officers continue to assess the impact on the two historic sites.

At the peak of the flooding, water levels reached around eight feet high at Leeds Industrial Museum, three times higher than previous record flooding in 1866.

The ground floor of the museum, which was once the world’s largest woollen mill, is covered in up to a foot of silt in some places and damage was also caused to the picnic area, fences and several windows and doors.

Thwaite Mills, one of the last remaining examples in Britain of a water-powered mill, was hit from both sides as the river burst into the Aire and Calder Navigation just before the site.

The mill and the rest of the island suffered extensive flooding and is currently covered in a thick layer of silt and other debris, which officers are now working to clear.