| The Stokesley wheel that turned full circle
Then in 1983 - There must be many Stokesley residents who cannot recall Fidler’s Mill which stood adjacent to the present Safeway supermarket site since 1086.
The Domesday Book records it being one of only two water mills in the Cleveland area (the other was at Guisborough)
It was demolished by the owners – Farmway – along with the mill cottage in 1983 despite last minute attempts by the Stokesley Society to have it listed as a building of historic significance.
But at least the Society was able to rescue the mill wheel which was buried under the tons of the demolition rubble. “It was a massive job unearthing it” said chairman Hugh
Charman, and a team of Society members helped by unemployed youngsters and a number of local businessmen, spent two years diligently restoring the wheel to its former glory.
It now has pride of place on a site adjacent to the Stokesley Motors roundabout
and serves to remind us of the vigilance needed if we are not to lose other important remains of our industrial past.
This article originally appeared in the November 1999 issue of Now
& Then Magazine
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