Description and History of Site:-
Three storey mill quite old. Stone and slab. Odd plan, water turns through right angle through lean-to wheel house. Can't have been a very powerful wheel as not much head of water. Mill quite ancient with many projecting 'throughs' like a dry stone wall. Some wooden lintels The minutes for Aysgarth parish meeting for 2 July 1912 record that "Mr Bell proposed to install at the Old Mill an electricity plant and would be willing to supply electric lights to the village roads on terms to be mutually agreed". At the August parish meeting the offer of £1 per light was deadlocked - 5 votes for, 5 against - but Aysgarth RDC had already agreed to a request from the electric light company to erect poles on the roadside near Aysgarth. Thus Messrs Bell & Dougill, proprietors of the company, were able to go ahead, using the waterwheel in the village cornmill on the River Ure to supply electric light. An oil engine was added to meet increasing demand and to provide electricity in dry weather when the river was low. (Personal comment by Jack Thompson, July 1999).

In 1930 Burton Bros took over the company and installed a submerged Gilkes Francis turbine in a new watercourse at the mill which had to be blasted out of the rock; this drove a 230 volt dynamo. The village of Carperby, which had previously been supplied with electricity from a small oil engine, was linked by overhead wires with Aysgarth.

Further Reading and References:-
YAHS - Hatcher Card Index. Research funded by the Yorkshire Arts Association 1972.
Hatcher, J. The Industrial Architecture of Yorkshire. Phillimore, 1985.
CIAS Research Report no 26, Tom Hay, 2000.

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Key Words :- corn watermill turbine

Viewing the Site :- Can be viewed from the public road or footpath

Address :- Mill Lane, Aysgarth, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, DL8 3AT
Grid Ref :- SE 00507 88814
Co-ordinates :- Lat 54.294945 , Long -1.993713
Local Authority :- Richmondshire District Council
Pre 1974 County :- Yorkshire - North Riding
Site Status :- Site extant - Protected status unknown
Site Condition :- Site disused - but otherwise substantially intact
Site Dates :- - Derelict in 1973
Record Date :- 16 May 2015

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