Restoration of Howsham Mill receives national award

Howsham Mill, near Stamford Bridge, is now working again with a newly installed waterwheel helping to provide enough electricity to the National Grid to power 50 homes.

It stopped being used as a mill in 1947 and was only rediscovered more than 50 years later.

The restoration started in 2012 and workers had to cope with vandal attacks and four separate floods. Now their work has been recognised with an English Heritage Angel Award for the best rescue of an industrial building.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, who founded the awards in 2011, helped to present them at the Palace Theatre in London. He said: “I applaud our winners and indeed everyone who enters the Angels Awards – there are hundreds of unsung heritage heroes out there.

“It takes courage, tenacity and perseverance to tackle historic buildings at risk but the results make this country a better place for all for us.”

Martin Phillips, a trustee of the Renewable Heritage Trust which has carried out the work, said that the project had been hampered by record levels of flooding.

He said: “I have enjoyed bringing my granchildren down here and hope when they are grown up they will bring their own children down here too. I see it as little bit of my legacy.”