History of Steeles Mill
Centuries of Milling on the Lyvennet
Steele’s Mill is a rare chance to live within a working piece of Cumbrian history – without giving up any modern comforts.
Once a busy corn mill on the banks of the River Lyvennet, it has been lovingly restored into 5-star self-catering accommodation where the character of the past is very much part of everyday life. Steele’s Mill stands to the west of the river Lyvennet on or near the site where the village watermill has stood for centuries, perhaps millennia. The nearby hill is called Milbers, the Old Norse name for Mill Hill, and suggests that a mill has stood here from c.900AD. The earliest existing record dates from 1321 in the post mortem valuation of Roger de Clifford’s estate.
The present three-storey Georgian mill was built for Charles Tufton, 10th Earl of Thanet, in the early C19th hence the capital ‘T’ on the date stone. It was probably built in response to the increased demand for grain created by the Napoleonic Wars. Sadly, the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 is likely to have led to its decline. Joseph Dent was the last miller to mill grain here in the 1920s, though it continued to be used as a saw mill until the end of the Second World War.
A New Function for a Historic Site
The conservation of the Mill began in 2004 with both bat and archaeological surveys and the clearing of the site, this included the removal of 60 years of ivy, debris and a large tree from the wheel house! To be sustainable the Mill would need a new function and it was decided this should be as a five-star holiday let.
There were two guiding principles for the project: firstly, to maintain the integrity and simplicity of the building while preserving, as far as practicable, its original purpose and rural industrial past. Secondly, to use local materials and skilled local craftsmen. In several cases this involved the direct descendants of the original craftsmen. Charlie Lowis continued his family’s 100 year history as village carpenters, replacing apple wood teeth carved by his grandfather, while David from Pigney’s Engineering replaced iron work originally wrought by his ancestors.
Preserving the Workings
Fortunately, the main roof had been kept quite sound. The wheel house had to be rebuilt and the wheel, though never intended to turn again, was repaired in situ. The internal workings remain in place on the ground floor and were restored, enclosed safely behind oak and glass, and uplit. The kitchen that now surrounds the workings was hand made by Staveley Kitchens of Kendal and the kitchen range stands within the beautifully domed stone-cut alcove where grain once dried.
All the fittings and furniture throughout the building were chosen following the simple rules of quality and good design. The fenestration throughout the Mill is typically Georgian and replicates the original but with modern seals to draught proof. The window catches are wrought iron and the deep window recesses have been gently rounded to increase light, with curtains hanging from iron rails hand wrought by a local blacksmith ending in a simple ram’s horn design.
Oak Floors & Original Millstones
The staircase and upper floors are of oak grown within a mile of the Mill. Philip Richardson, a local cabinet maker, built the staircase, with impressive newel posts copying the octagonal post of the crank shaft in the internal workings. The Mill was a ‘four pair’ and two of those pairs of grinding stones were never moved. The conversion work took place around them and ultimately they were halved and laid into the oak floor of the sitting room.
The twin bedded room on this first floor was once occupied by a funnel shaped void for holding grain as it was dried by the fire set in the domed alcove below. The master bedroom occupies the whole of the second floor, reaching up into the sky with light flooding in from four windows. Topping it all is a hidden bat loft only accessible by pippistrelle and friends.
Nature and a Lifelong Ambition
The roof of the wheel house, which looks across open pasture to the river, offered the perfect site for a first floor balcony. A glazed French door leads on to it from the sitting room. Guests will be able to sit here and watch as kingfishers dart; dippers dive and herons languidly fly past, while nearby otters play in the Lyvennet and red squirrels garner acorns in the woods.
The conservation and diversification of the Mill was a lifelong ambition of Steele Addison and was to be his final building project in a series of ten spanning fifty years. The Mill has been lovingly completed, and renamed, in his memory by his wife, and conservation partner Margaret Addison.
Stay in Steeles Mill
If you are drawn to places with a story to tell – somewhere you can feel the past in the grain of the wood and the curve of a millstone – Steele’s Mill offers a historic stay with genuine character, on a peaceful riverbank in the Eden Valley.