Queen’s Mill Castleford: The World’s Largest Stone Grinding Flour Mill

National World - LocalTV

We explore Queen’s Mill, the world’s largest stone grinding flour mill in Castleford, which is undergoing a major renovation to become an even bigger community asset.

Transcript

00:00 I'm the Chief Executive of Castleford Heritage Trust and we're at Queen's Mill today.

00:05 We're in the bridge room of Queen's Mill.

00:08 When we purchased the building it was literally being handed a bunch of keys for an industrial

00:13 flour mill.

00:14 So there was very little usable space so we've spent a number of years creating spaces that

00:21 we can use for the community and use to generate income for the Trust to keep us sustainable.

00:27 It's brought a building which was very much closed to the public really into use by the

00:33 community.

00:34 It's a real hub for activity for our tenants.

00:38 It's the biggest stone ground flour mill in the world.

00:41 It's one of the few mills in the country that still uses grindstones.

00:46 We still use two sets of grindstones to produce our flour.

00:51 We set this up to be a demonstration room as well so we have school parties coming in

00:57 and on open days we get people coming in from the community to see how flour is made because

01:02 the mill was built in 1822 and there's evidence of milling on this site from 1190 and there's

01:10 archaeological evidence of milling on this site from Roman times.

01:14 I probably came to Queen's Mill about six or so years ago and at that point was very

01:22 impressed by what was happening and my journey since then.

01:26 I've been coming back every so often dipping in and out and constantly amazed by now what

01:32 are you doing?

01:33 Where is what?

01:34 What floor is that?

01:35 What extension are you building?

01:37 New toilets you say?

01:38 You've got a boathouse.

01:39 Constant change and constant development and real energy and passion from everyone that's

01:44 been involved.

01:45 When we moved into the mill this room itself didn't exist.

01:48 You can see one of the silos in the background and there were eight of those in these spaces

01:54 so we had to take out seven of those.

01:57 We wanted to keep some of the features, wanted to keep the integrity of the building really

02:02 so we've left one siloed as an indication of what the building was used for and what

02:06 was here.

02:07 We've got a long list of volunteers who've all come with different skills.

02:11 We've had ex-teachers, ex-joiners, ex-builders.

02:14 Because they want to be a part of it we've got a coffee shop, a craft beer shop, tea

02:18 rooms and things like that so we do collect rent from people which helps to develop what

02:24 we're doing at the mill.

02:25 A key thing that we are trying to address is how, with the exception of Queen's Mill,

02:30 how over many, many years, decades, Castleford's turned its back on the riverside and we're

02:35 really keen to reconnect this fabulous asset with the town centre which is very, very,

02:41 very close by.

02:42 We've been very lucky to receive Townsteel money to enable us to do some more refurbishments.

02:49 I think it's very much at the heart of the town and the riverside and I think people

02:53 have taken it to their hearts because they've seen it grow and really are pleased to see

02:59 a building like this brought back into community use.

03:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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