The funding supports an innovative blueprint for development and activities formed after12 months of intensive consultation with local communities and groups. The project, The Waterpower Connection Point, takes the Heron Corn Mill site into an exciting new phase that will enable the historic mill to benefit a much wider range of visitors. Diverse learning opportunities including guided walks and talks, workshops and new resources for schools and groups will help people interact with and better understand the history of the mill and its importance to the local community and our regional heritage. New projects and events over the next three years will engage artists, educators and volunteers through digging deeply into the mill’s unique archive and create accessible interpretation through audio, film, performance and other media.

Training in traditional building skills will also be offered during the capital works, including, roofing, masonry and millwright placements. Once completed, the mill will be able to fully demonstrate its historic role as an important food and animal feed provider producing many of the staples of everyday life using sustainable methods. The site is already a green energy generator, with its successful 100kW hydropower Kaplan turbine, which provides the site’s core income.

Audrey Steeley, Creative Project Manager at Heron Corn Mill, said: “We are so pleased to have been awarded this HLF grant, as the mill is such an important building within our surroundings, demonstrating how water power was used through the ages. It will ensure that the mill itself can survive long into the future. It will create so many new opportunities for us, as well as enable so many more people to visit, learn and enjoy everything the site has to offer.”