Pennine Housing buys iconic Gannex Mill site in Elland

Dec 8 2009 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A MASSIVE mill complex has been sold for homes.

Pennine Housing has bought Gannex Mill in Elland from Clayton Homes.

But one of the town’s councillors said last night he was “disappointed” that the Dewsbury Road site would be turned into flats.

Pennine Housing also plans to build housing on land it has bought around the mill.

But Clr Bob Thompson believes there are too many flats in the town already.

The Elland Lib Dem said: “I’m disappointed. We’ve already got far too many apartments in Elland which can’t be sold.

“I will be looking very, very closely at what Pennine Housing want to do with it.”

The sale is the latest chapter in the colourful history of the mill.

Lithuanian Jews Joseph and Margaret Kagan, who fled to England during the Second World War, set up Gannex in 1950.

The Fixby couple produced the famous beige Gannex raincoats, as favoured by Huddersfield-born prime minister Harold Wilson.