Hidden deep within a popular 20-acre campsite in North Yorkshire is not somewhere one would immediately expect to discover a beautifully preserved Georgian watermill. But along the banks of the River Ure in North Stainley, just downstream from West Tanfield (about 4.5 miles from Ripon), Sleningford Watermill can indeed be found.
The current building dates to 1773, though this inference derives primarily from an inscribed datestone sited above the front door of the Mill House, which reads:
O you that bathe in Lordly blysse,
Or toil in fortunes giddy sphere,
Do not too rashly deem amyss,
Of him who bides contented here.
In fact, this building is not the first to occupy the site. Documentary accounts record that a mill was present here as early as the 14th century, with its wheel therefore remaining in continuous use for centuries, turning the stones which ground wheat, corn and barley for local farmers.
Speculation suggests that the Dalton family built the current Mill House which comprises a real hodgepodge composition of cobbles, stone and brick and, by the early 1800s, the original wooden wheel was replaced by the solid iron version which now stands to the great height of 15ft by 5 feet.
To the rear, the weir, comprising an irregular arrangement of rocks and stones, is another amalgam of centuries of handiwork. It was used as a barrier to divert the water towards the sluice gates. These would then be raised to allow the water to run into the mill stream and drive the wheel.
Known as Walk Mill in the mid 19th century, the mill was in use right up until the 1950s, and was later, in 1973, refurbished to allow the grounds to be opened as a caravan and camping park, with the two-bay addition to the mill henceforth housing an information centre/shop and residence.
Books by Dr Emma Wells
