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The High Corn Mill rising above the Eller Beck

Photographs · 1988 to today

The mill in pictures.

Seven hundred years of building, a waterwheel that still turns, bees on the roof and a royal visit nobody photographed twice. Here is the mill as it has been caught on film.

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Around the yardThe mill today

A man looking at the canal-side signpost on the path up to the mill — The canal path, two minutes from the door.

The mill seen across the beck through bare winter trees — From across the beck, midwinter.

The gravel yard behind the mill under a wide sky — The yard from the top end.

The Eller Beck running below the mill buildings — The beck runs under the buildings and out the far side.

A guide talking to a group beside the camper van in the courtyard — A tour setting off from the courtyard.

The holiday let entrance in the mill building, painted green — The Eller Beck, tucked into the mill.

The Frame Shop window with two wagon wheels mounted on the wall above — The Frame Shop, under the wagon wheels.

A long table laid for dinner in the Elsworth restaurant — Elsworth, laid up for the evening.

The mill roofs and the lane below seen from the air — Roofs and the lane, from above.

Wheels, stones and gearingInside

The mill’s wooden waterwheel in its stone housing — The wheel. Twenty-eight feet across.

The iron launder trough feeding the waterwheel, overgrown with ivy — The launder that carries the beck water to the wheel.

A guide standing beside a large piece of mill machinery — Machinery, on the tour.

Millstones and wooden gearing in a display case with a painting of the canal behind — Millstones and gearing, kept behind glass.

A wall-sized engraving of Skipton Castle gatehouse beside a printed panel about the Eller Beck — The castle gatehouse engraving, and the beck’s own panel.

Two people standing in the open doorway of the mill — At the door.

One afternoonThe royal visit, March 1988

On 29 March 1988 the Prince of Wales came to Skipton and the mill was one of his stops. It was mid-restoration at the time, which is why there are builders’ boards on the wall behind him. The visit took in more than one business that day, so only the photographs taken here at the mill are shown.

The Prince of Wales beside the waterwheel guard rail, builders’ boards on the wall behind — At the wheel, with the mill still a building site.

A group in suits gathered by the timber guard rail at the waterwheel — The party at the guard rail.

A crowd gathered inside the mill among heavy timber posts — Inside, among the timbers.

The Prince of Wales walking onto the timber footbridge over the beck — Out onto the footbridge over the beck.

The party on the footbridge beside the mill’s stone wall and doorway — The same doorway visitors still come through.

The party in the mill yard with Skipton Castle’s tower rising behind — In the yard, the castle tower behind.

The party walking through the gravel yard beside the mill — A slow walk round the site.

The party returning to the cars at the end of the visit — And away.

Harry’s hivesThe bees

Two white beehives branded High Corn Mill standing on gravel — The mill’s own hives.

Two beekeepers standing behind the hives with the mill behind them — The beekeepers, mid-inspection.

A beekeeper opening the top of a hive — Lifting the lid.

Two beekeepers with a hive in the stone arch beneath the waterwheel — A hive carried down to the arch below the wheel.

Cake, cheques and trophiesLife at the mill

These four only survive as small web copies, so they are shown small.

Cyclists holding an oversized five hundred pound cheque outside the home company — Five hundred pounds for The Furniture Makers’ Company, 2022.

A man behind a table of home baking in the mill yard — The cake stall, doing steady trade.

A woman serving cakes at a stall hung with we support Ukraine bunting — Baking for Ukraine.

A couple in evening dress holding a Skipton Business Awards trophy — A Skipton Business Award, brought back to the mill.

Older than anyone hereFrom the archive

An old black and white photograph of the mill’s timber loading bay projecting over the canal, with a loaded barge below — A barge tied up below the mill’s loading bay. Undated.

An old sepia photograph of a barge on the canal in a wooded cutting beside the mill — The canal in its cutting, with a barge coming down.

Come and see it for yourself.

Tours are free and run every Tuesday at 10.30am. The Waterwheel House is open to everyone, all week.

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