News

We worked hard to comply with HLF’s requirements since our award. It took longer than hoped, although the interim permission to start allowed Minerva Heritage to organise start-up meetings for three volunteer projects. Appointing the building contractors coincided with full HLF permission to start, at the end of June. Our project organisers, Shirley Muir Associates…

Three volunteer projects are ongoing whilst the mill is closed for refurbishment. Volunteer training for when the mill reopens is being developed. Another continuing vital role for volunteers outside the scope of HLF is keeping the hydro-electric wheel turning. Mary Ann Lancaster, of Heritage Associates, and Jenny Truran, Lancashire County Museums Service Conservation Officer, assisted…

Our Heritage Lottery Fund award will enable us to learn more of the mill’s past from archaeological work by professionals, and a local history study led by volunteers, as parts of the three-year project. The process began as our application developed, with a report on the working parts by Martin Watts, a national authority on…

By 5 February we had built a sufficiently well-structured enclosure around the relocated generating machinery to allow us to test its effectiveness in limiting the noise which was of some concern. At the time of writing, the generator has been running for 21 days and it is believed that the objective of reducing noise to…

The trustees have been working on plans for a Heritage Lottery funded restoration scheme since 2014. Having completed our development phase in February 2017, we hoped that HLF would decide on our delivery stage application – the big money – in June, but they deferred it for six months, requiring us to improve the documentation…

The Eskdale generator became accredited under the government’s Renewables Obligation scheme in July 2016, so is permitted to earn Feed-in Tariff payments for the electricity produced. In testing during a sustained period of medium water supply, all parts operated well and safety aspects were proved. However, in quiet conditions a particular frequency within the basic…

The last Newsletter reported the decision to defer our round-2 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund from November 2016, to allow time for closing the funding gap caused by higher than expectedbuilding costs. Many thanks to patrons and members who made donations for this purpose. We are also grateful to the Community Funds of Cumbria…

Hayloft Publishing, 249 pages, £12.00 from the Ratty stations and other local shops. Margaret Armstrong Elliott was born in 1931. Her family farmed at Paddockwray and the Woolpack, also running the Inn. The farms were separated by Christcliff, inconveniently occupied by a hostile Mr Vicars. From Eskdale High School, where the teacher was her Aunt…

Admissions Weekly opening from Wednesday to Saturday between 10.45 am and 4.00 pm commenced in June. I opened the mill on 18 days in June, 12 in July, 15 in August and 18 in September. There were 2,450 visitors; one quarter were children. I took £5,100 in admissions. Trustees and other volunteers dealt with other…

The first use of water power to generate electricity at Eskdale corn mill was in the 1930’s. The winnowing machine, formerly part of the oat milling machinery, was replaced by a dynamo, which only supplied sufficient power for DC electric light in the cottage. In 2008, after the Trust took over, it was thought that…