A lottery grant has been awarded for repairs to Gayle Mill in Hawes.
The owner of the building, the Cultura Trust, has received a grant of £59,100 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to enable it to carry out repairs at the Grade II* listed building and support the trust’s costs during the pandemic.
Graham Bell, director of Cultura, which is the new name for North of England Civic Trust, said: “Thanks to the National Lottery and its players we have at last been able to gain access to the roof and other parts of the mill.
“Rampant vegetation was threatening to undermine the headrace. We’re grateful that The National Lottery Heritage
“Fund is supporting us at this crucial time – it’s a lifeline to us and others who are passionate about sustaining heritage for the benefit of all.”
Jill McMullon, chair of Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council and Richmondshire District councillor, said: “Gayle Mill is very much a part of our local history and it will be amazing to have it restored back to a working mill. In such difficult times it’s lovely to have such good news and we look forward to see its progress and eventual completion.”
The funding was awarded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Emergency Fund.
£50million was made available nationally to provide emergency funding for those in need across the heritage sector.
Stone Technical Services of Darlington won the tender and Mr Bell said: “They made a dramatic presence on site by doing the roof repairs by rope access rather than scaffolding.”
Neil Embleton, Stone Technical Services’ contracts manager, said: “we specialise in rope access maintenance work to historic buildings, which often have hard-to-reach roofs and architectural detail.”
The work at the mill includes the stone roof slates, ridges and gable, overhauling the drainage and resurfacing the drive, which had eroded during storms early in the year, and installing new distinctive ‘Gayle-style’ gates as were made at the mill.
Ros Kerslake, chief executive of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, supporting economic regeneration and benefiting our personal wellbeing.
“All of these things are going to be even more important as we emerge from this current crisis.
“Thanks to money raised by National Lottery players we are pleased to be able to lend our support to organisations such as Cultura during this uncertain time.”
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Great to hear story’s like this, well done to all involved at Gayle Mill. It’s such a shame nothing like this is being done to preserve the Bridge Hotel which is located adjacent to Catterick Race Course. The Building which is a large partly fire damaged Grade II listed former pub/restaurant/hotel thought to be originally built in the 16th century but with alterations and extensions during the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. So sad watching it deteriorate.