| Dedicated students restore Tocketts Mill
When Tocketts Mill near Guisborough literally ground to a halt in 1960, it was feared this outstanding building and its ancient machinery would fall into decay.
Had it not been for the dedicated efforts of pupils and staff of South Park Sixth Form College, in
Normanby, this undoubtedly would have been the case.
In 1976 these young people took upon themselves the daunting task of restoring the Mill as a college project. Step by step the floors were hacked away and replaced, the walls were stripped, replastered and painted and new stairs were built and installed. Gradually the mill came back to life.
Langbaurgh Council and Cleveland Education Authority, chipped in with grants, and in 1978 the youngsters were thrilled to learn that their work on the first floor restoration had won the Shell Better Britain competition.
Two years later electric lighting was installed and the second set of stairs to the top floor were in place. This achievement won a Civic Trust Young Enterprise Award. Finally in 1981 the sluice gates were re-built and the recirculating pump installed.
Once the restoration was completed, the mill was leased to the Cleveland Building Preservation Trust , and an appeal was launched for volunteers to help run it, and open it up to visitors. These unpaid helpers came together to form “The Friends of Tocketts Mill,”
The only working example of its kind in the region, It was first known as Tocketts Mill as early as 1645. It played a vital commercial role for the local farmers who brought their grain to it in ever increasing quantities as agricultural development, especially with the introduction of better liming techniques, made for increased yields. This required the millers to find extra storage space and Tocketts in common with other mills added extra
storeys.
Tocketts Mill is remarkable in that all of its machinery has survived. Only the power source is not original. In its hey day, the water was taken from Skelton Beck, but now it is supplied to the water wheel by an electrically driven pump. The wheel is 18ft in diameter and 4ft wide and has 48 buckets. Because of its extremely decaying condition it had to be rebuilt. The work was carried out by the firm of John Hauxwell of Yarm in 1977.
The machinery inside the mill consists of three sets of mill stones, a grain dresser with its fan, a silk screen, a grain elevator, a flour elevator and a sack hoist.
John Harrison one of the Friends of the Mill is enthusiastic in his praise for all the volunteers. “They give generously of their time, and do a splendid job in preserving this unique mill for posterity.” John estimates that if the restoration work was carried out today it would cost well over £100,000. Flour milled at Tocketts comes from grain supplied by local farmer Dan Humphrey, and the finished product is on sale to the general public, and to local bakers.
This article originally appeared in the March 2000 issue of Now
& Then Magazine
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