Est. 1310 · Chapel Hill, Skipton
Seven hundred years, still turning.
The mill has been part of Skipton's story since Robert de Clifford held it for King Edward II. It has been a corn mill, a monopoly, a museum and a seed merchants, and it is now a hydro powered home for independent business.
Our storyA Brief History of the Corn Mill
Records show the mill dates back as far as 1310, when it was owned by Robert de Clifford, having been handed to the powerful Clifford family by the then King Edward II.
What we see of the mill today is only half of what existed back then, when two mills operated to produce corn for the whole of Skipton. At that point the mill held the monopoly on grinding corn for the town, and it was not until the nineteenth century that this was lifted, giving Skipton residents the option to pay a ‘mulcture-toll’ instead.
In 1954 the castle estate was broken up, and a decade later the mill came into the hands of George Leatt, a local businessman, who converted it into an industrial museum and seed merchants.
It was originally called the Water-Corne Milne. It went on to become the Soke Mill, and finally found the name we all know it by today, High Corn Mill.
The building you see is two stone blocks straddling the beck on a single-span arch, three storeys and L-shaped, its fabric largely eighteenth century over much older foundations. It has been listed at grade II since 1978. The waterwheel inside is twenty-eight feet across.
The George Leatt Industrial and Folk Museum
The visitor leaflet from the years the mill was run as a museum. Twenty pence for adults and ten for children, two waterwheels turning, and wholemeal flour milled on site.
Open the leafletSeven centuriesThe Mill in Dates
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1310The Cliffords take the mill
The earliest surviving record of a mill here. Robert de Clifford holds it, the manor of Skipton having been granted to his family by Edward II. Two mills stand on the site at this point, and between them they grind the corn for the whole of Skipton.
The Clifford banner — chequy or and azure, a fess gules. The heralds set it down at the siege of Caerlaverock in 1300, ten years before Skipton was his, as ‘checky gold and blue, a scarlet fess’. The Cliffords held Skipton Castle until 1676, and the Tuftons after them, and the mill went with the castle either way. That single fact explains most of what follows: for as long as the castle owned the mill, the mill was not really a business at all. It was a right.
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Medieval to C19thSoke: a monopoly on the town’s bread
The mill held the soke — the legal monopoly on grinding Skipton’s corn. Every household in the town was obliged to bring its grain here and nowhere else, and to hand over a share of the flour as payment.
It is why the building was known first as the Water-Corne Milne and then simply as the Soke Mill. Milling was not a trade you chose in medieval Skipton. It was a toll you paid on the act of eating, and this is the building where you paid it.
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19th centuryThe monopoly is lifted
The obligation ends. Townspeople can pay a ‘mulcture-toll’ — a cash settlement in place of the old duty — rather than be bound to mill here.
After five hundred years of guaranteed custom, the mill had to earn its living for the first time.
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1912The first turbine
A turbine is installed at the mill. It is worth sitting with that date: this building was generating power from the beck more than a century ago, and the hydro scheme running here today is a return to something the mill already did, not a novelty bolted onto an old building.
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Around 1946The corn stops
Milling ceases after some six hundred years. The building does not empty — it takes in machinery for cutting hay, and later an agricultural machinery company — but the work it was built for is over.
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1954The castle estate is broken up
The Skipton Castle estate is sold off and the mill’s association with the castle — the thing that had defined it since Robert de Clifford — comes to an end after more than six centuries.
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1970The wheel turns again
George Leatt, a local businessman, had taken the building on in the late 1960s and set about restoring it. In 1970 he gets the waterwheel turning again and opens the core of the mill as a living museum, with a seed merchants alongside it.
The wheel he restored is twenty-eight feet across. It is the same one visitors stand in front of today.
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1978Listed, grade II
The mill is added to the National Heritage List for England at grade II. Two stone buildings straddling the beck on a single-span arch, three storeys, an L-shaped plan, the fabric largely eighteenth century over much older foundations.
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2010Power back into the grid
A 15kW Crossflow turbine is installed by letslivegreen, weighing 600kg and making enough electricity for about twenty homes. It feeds into the national grid and makes the mill a carbon neutral complex.
The Waterwheel House was opened around it by the Mayor of Skipton with the actress Hannah Hobley, and it is free to walk into.
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TodayTwelve businesses and a holiday let
An ongoing programme of renovation has made the mill home to twelve independent businesses, The Eller Beck holiday apartment, beehives, and the turbine — all still run on the water of the same beck that turned the first wheel in 1310.
Sources The mill’s Historic England listing (entry 1316983, first listed 2 March 1978), and Wikipedia on High Corn Mill, Robert de Clifford and Skipton Castle.
Old building, new powerThe Wheel and the Turbine
Twenty-first century kit fitted carefully into a medieval building.
The Waterwheel House holds a water turbine we had built for the site, installed by letslivegreen, which feeds part of the town's electricity into the national grid. It makes enough for about twenty homes.
The 15kW, 600kg Crossflow turbine makes High Corn Mill a carbon neutral complex, powered by the same beck that turned the original wheel seven hundred years ago. Beside it, the viewing areas show some of the original corn machinery and a second waterwheel that visitors can turn themselves.
The mill todayA Working Community
The mill is not a museum piece. Twelve independent businesses work here every day: a bridal boutique, a framer, a physio, a gym, two pilates studios, a hair salon, a counselling practice, a furniture showroom, a trade association and an award winning restaurant.
Above them, The Eller Beck sleeps ten at the edge of Skipton Castle Woods. Below them, the beck still turns the wheel. Anyone coming here for a haircut is walking through seven hundred years of Skipton's working life, whether they notice or not.
We think that is worth keeping going, and we would love to show you round.
Come and walk round it.
Tours are free and run Tuesdays at 10.30am, the Waterwheel House is open to everyone, and there is always someone about to answer a question.
Where nextKeep exploring the mill
There is more to the High Corn Mill than one page can hold.
