The Mill Shop:
Open daily between 9.30am and 5.30pm.
The Mill:
Open daily between 10am and 5.30pm BUT last admissions are at 4.30pm.
Christmas info:
The Mill and Shop are closed from 24th Dec to 2nd Jan BUT please phone before 24th Dec for flour sale times during the closed period.
Rowsley, Matlock,
Derbyshire.
DE4 2EB
Tel/fax: (01629) 734 374
Email: enquiries@
caudwellsmill.co.uk
There has been a mill on the River Wye, near it's confluence with the River Derwent, at Rowsley for at least 600 years. By 1591 there was both a corn mill and a walk (fulling) mill here which later became a sawmill. In 1874, John Caudwell took a lease from the Duke of Rutland, demolished these two mills, which were then derelict, and built a huge flour and provender (animal food) mill powered by two large breast shot water wheels.
The flour mill had eight sets of millstones and the provender mill had three more. Eleven years later, following the International Milling Exhibition in London. Caudwell started to upgrade the mill by replacing some of the stones with newly developed roller mills. In 1906 his son, Edward remodelled the whole plant, using roller mills developed by the Manchester firm of Briddon & Fowler. (George Briddon was born in Bakewell and had an uncle, also George, who was the manager of the Victoria flour mill in Bakewell.) Roller mills use precision ground chilled cast iron rolls which made possible for the first time quality milling without stone contamination.
By 1912 Edward decided to fit plansifters to allow finer grades of flour to be produced. He contacted the German firm Amme, Giesecke & Konegen (AGK) who had supplied plansifters for his brother’s mill in Congleton. It took until December 1913 for contracts to be signed and the equipment and the required workmen were to be on site by August 1914. The First World War started and three Germans (believed to be the workmen) were arrested and probably sent back to Germany. However, it appears that the senior men were allowed to install the machinery and were then interned in the Isle of Man, returning to Germany in 1919. Edward completed the payments for the machinery in 1924.
The waterwheels were found to be underpowered for the new plant, and so they were successively replaced on the flour side, in 1887 by a 48 inch diameter 35 hp "Trent" turbine and then in 1914 AGK replaced “Trent” by a 76hp "Francis" turbine which is still in use today. The provender wheel was replaced in 1898 by a 50hp "Little Giant" which is also still in use today to generate electricity.
A few further alterations were made in 1930 but basically visitors today can see a fine example on all four floors of an early water powered roller mill with line shafts and belt drives as a complete "machine", believed to be the only such mill left in Britain that can be visited.
Caudwell's mill can be visited almost every day, closing only over the Christmas and New Year period.
No longer able to mill flour due to the age of the machinery, the mill now sells over 20 types of flour, together with oat products and has customers from Caithness to the Isle of Wight.
The mill is an important educational resource for school children, who can take part in special workshops, with worksheets and a teacher's pack available.
Local craftsmen, a craft shop and a cafe now occupy the stables, cart sheds and stores around the courtyard.