Little Corby Mill at Warwick Bridge, in the Eden Valley, which we visited last year, is a fully operational corn mill producing flour for sale, and offering guided visits.

There was a mill here from at least the 12th century, but the present mill dates to a rebuild in 1839. It finally closed in 1989 when the last miller retired. By then it had been listed grade 2* because of its architectural merit, and particularly because the waterwheel, machinery, and millstones were intact, and the mill had been unaltered since Georgian times. It avoided being demolished for residential development in the 1990s, but gradually deteriorated. Placed on the ‘At Risk’ register in 2000, Carlisle City Council persuaded Cultura Trust (culturatrust.org) to take on the restoration of the mill. With grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and many other sources, this £2 million project was completed in 2019, with the Trust taking ownership of the mill in 2015. Public support led to a decision to set up a Community Benefit Society to lease and run the mill as a community bakery.

The main building is square with 3 storeys and a slate pyramidical roof with a weather vane.  The 2 storey block in front of it with a high-hipped slate roof and louvres houses the kiln.  The waterwheel  is in the building alongside, behind the arch.

The wheel is high breastshot, 10ft wide and 14ft diameter with 32 sheet iron buckets on a 10in diameter main shaft, and is fed by a long leat from both Trout Beck and Cairn Beck (but not from the adjacent River Eden).  The bypass channel shown here has a hydraulically operated sluice. 

The kiln area is now used as a meeting room.

Information from Industrial History of Cumbria, cumbria-industries.org,
and the mill’s website warwickbridgecornmill.org.uk.