0:00:03 > 0:00:06Historic houses, both humble and grand,
0:00:06 > 0:00:09have all played their part in the story of our nation,
0:00:09 > 0:00:15but today many are at risk and some in danger of being lost forever.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19I'm going to be following the fortunes of six properties,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22all facing their own struggle for survival...
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Oh, look! You can see the round. Wow!
0:00:29 > 0:00:33It's like walking into a, kind of, Tudor fantasy.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35This is not quite what I was expecting.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39..and they all have new owners committed to turning them
0:00:39 > 0:00:41into their dream home.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45A bit like a little old lady waiting for a face-lift
0:00:45 > 0:00:47and we're coming in to make her better.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51I never, ever thought I would do a project like this in my life before.
0:00:53 > 0:00:57I have spent years restoring derelict old properties,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01and having poured everything into trying to create my perfect family home,
0:01:01 > 0:01:07I know what a challenge it is to rescue a precious old building.
0:01:07 > 0:01:08Whoa, whoa, whoa!
0:01:08 > 0:01:11There's a lot riding on it, isn't there? It's scary times.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13We love it, we want to finish it,
0:01:13 > 0:01:15but sometimes it just feels like too much.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18It's Restoration Home.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30Covering nearly 6,000 square miles,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34Yorkshire includes some of Britain's most beautiful scenery.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37With vast swathes of unspoilt landscape,
0:01:37 > 0:01:42it's no wonder it's acquired the nickname God's Own County.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46It was also at the heart of the Industrial Revolution
0:01:46 > 0:01:50and by harnessing the waterways, helped drive mechanical processes
0:01:50 > 0:01:52that would make Britain truly great.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57The earliest watermills were the beating heart of a local community.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Today, precious few survive intact.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04Those that do are hanging on for brave individuals
0:02:04 > 0:02:06to breathe new life into them.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11This is Coulton Mill in North Yorkshire,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15a collection of rural buildings from a bygone age.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21The old watermill, which turned grain into flour for centuries,
0:02:21 > 0:02:25stopped working just after the Second World War.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Its archaic wooden machinery is gradually rotting away.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36The mill is joined to the miller's house next-door,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and the whole place has serious rising damp.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46Two barns across the road are derelict and in danger of collapse.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51It's something of a miracle that such a rare group of buildings
0:02:51 > 0:02:53has survived into the 21st century.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59They have a Grade II listing and come with ten acres of land,
0:02:59 > 0:03:02but without a saviour, this remarkable relic
0:03:02 > 0:03:05of a vanished way of life could be lost forever.
0:03:05 > 0:03:12Now, one couple want to rescue Coulton Mill and rekindle its past.
0:03:13 > 0:03:20They're Yorkshireman Nick Burrows and his American wife, Heather.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23I loved this place from the minute Nick showed me the brochure of it.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25He said, "Don't you want to go and see it?"
0:03:25 > 0:03:28And I said, "No, I don't need to - I want to live there."
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Heather came to England as an undergraduate student
0:03:31 > 0:03:34and stayed on to do her PhD
0:03:34 > 0:03:37She fell in love with Nick and now they're married
0:03:37 > 0:03:40with three-year-old daughter Sybilla.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42It's their first chance to put down roots,
0:03:42 > 0:03:44because Nick works overseas -
0:03:44 > 0:03:48currently as part of the UK government's reconstruction team
0:03:48 > 0:03:51in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54I spend a lot of time all over the world
0:03:54 > 0:03:57trying to help other people build their own lives,
0:03:57 > 0:03:59but to build something which is our own rural idyll
0:03:59 > 0:04:01I think is something most people would dream about.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Come on.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Nick's away from home for long stretches,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09so Heather will oversee much of the restoration.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12I am here with Sybilla most of the time on my own.
0:04:12 > 0:04:17He comes back about every six weeks for two weeks
0:04:17 > 0:04:18and upturns our schedule.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Let's go upstairs and get you dressed. Come on.
0:04:21 > 0:04:27With Sybilla at nursery school, Heather also has a part-time job as an English teacher.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Even though there's no proper heating
0:04:32 > 0:04:35and the walls are green with damp, she was keen to move in
0:04:35 > 0:04:38to the old miller's house as soon as they bought the place.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41It's beautiful waking up in the morning
0:04:41 > 0:04:44and hearing the pheasants or hearing the owls at night
0:04:44 > 0:04:47and just seeing the sun come through the windows
0:04:47 > 0:04:50and think, "OK, we're going to do this, this and this," and making it our own.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54It's Coulton Mill's ten acres and old buildings
0:04:54 > 0:04:57that really excite Heather.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00She grew up with animals in rural North America,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03and wants use the fields and restore the barns here
0:05:03 > 0:05:05to create her own small farm.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10I think that's more important than the house, actually.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12Nick was like, "What do you want firstly?
0:05:12 > 0:05:14"Do you want kitchen floors or do you want pigs?"
0:05:14 > 0:05:16Pigs!
0:05:18 > 0:05:20For the Burrows family,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24Coulton Mill seems to offer the perfect English rural dream.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26It's a place for us to have a married life
0:05:26 > 0:05:28and to bring up our daughter Sybilla
0:05:28 > 0:05:30and anyone else who comes along in due course,
0:05:30 > 0:05:33but the added bonus to that is the farm buildings
0:05:33 > 0:05:35that allow us to run a smallholding.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38And it's also got the mill, which has memories that go back
0:05:38 > 0:05:41an awful long way for a lot of people.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Nick and Heather paid £305,000 to buy the ten acres
0:05:45 > 0:05:49next to the Yorkshire stream that once drove the mill,
0:05:49 > 0:05:53the miller's house and mill attached,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56and the two derelict barns across the road.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00But they don't have the money to tackle everything at once,
0:06:00 > 0:06:02and work on the barns will have to wait.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06The immediate priority is to make the house
0:06:06 > 0:06:08fit to live in as their home.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16There are potentially five bedrooms on the first floor and in the attic.
0:06:17 > 0:06:21On the ground floor, there are two living rooms at the front
0:06:21 > 0:06:23and a large kitchen at the back
0:06:23 > 0:06:27adjoining the old farm dairy, and a larder.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30They've made a conservative estimate for restoration costs
0:06:30 > 0:06:32over the first year or so.
0:06:32 > 0:06:38We need to spend £50,000, but that's on the underside.
0:06:38 > 0:06:39To do everything we want to do,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42we'll need to spend quite a bit more.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47As for the old mill, there's no budget at all.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50But for local people, this building,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53with its crumbling wooden waterwheel,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56is the symbolic heart of the community's past.
0:06:58 > 0:06:59They constantly come by and they say,
0:06:59 > 0:07:01"When are you going to get the mill wheel running again?"
0:07:01 > 0:07:04And they constantly ask that, so I think it's an important thing
0:07:04 > 0:07:07for the history of the place and the whole community.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12Simon Harrison is the son of Coulton's last miller.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19His father, Thomas, sold up in 1950,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22and before he died he made a working model of the mill.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28It's purely a copy of Coulton Mill but all out of memory,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32and he had no plans, no drawings, anything.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36He'd obviously never forgotten the place,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38it broke his heart to leave it and to watch it
0:07:38 > 0:07:44go into decline so possibly it was his way of preserving his memory.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51To find out if anything can be done to save the mill,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54Nick and Heather have called in Yorkshire mill historian
0:07:54 > 0:07:56John Harrison - no relation.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00- Ah, now, look at that.- Ah, wow.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Now, that wheel is really old,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07completely made of wood, it's got to be 18th century, I would think,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11which is really old for any kind of watermill.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15Frozen in time since the mill closed over 60 years ago,
0:08:15 > 0:08:20the antiquated machinery is riddled with woodworm and beyond repair.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Oh, look - you can see the round!
0:08:23 > 0:08:27Yeah. There we go. That's where the millstone was.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30Hidden beneath the sheets of corrugated iron
0:08:30 > 0:08:34is the hole where two millstones once ground against each other
0:08:34 > 0:08:36to turn grain into flour.
0:08:38 > 0:08:39Oh, wow!
0:08:40 > 0:08:43Today, the stones are missing
0:08:43 > 0:08:47and the mill's workings are silted up and waterlogged,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50but John believes the crumbling waterwheel is unique.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55I've looked at mills across this country and other places as well
0:08:55 > 0:08:57and I haven't seen another one of this layout.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00It's a very old design.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04They've no idea how they're going to do it, but Nick and Heather
0:09:04 > 0:09:07are determined to try and rescue the wheel.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10If the mill is a body,
0:09:10 > 0:09:12this is the lifeblood that runs through it
0:09:12 > 0:09:16and without this it's static and stagnant.
0:09:16 > 0:09:19When this turns again, the mill comes to life.
0:09:22 > 0:09:23But for now, all their resources
0:09:23 > 0:09:26must go on creating a home to live in.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31For Heather and three-year-old Sybilla,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34it means months living in a cold, damp house
0:09:34 > 0:09:37with builders working around them.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40The only heating that's been in the house has been from the coal fires,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42the wood fires that she's got
0:09:42 > 0:09:45and you see if you come a bit further down there, look...
0:09:46 > 0:09:48Look at all this.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51This is damp, that is actually damp, is that.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54That was a bit drier up there, but this is actually damp is this.
0:09:54 > 0:09:56You can see how it's tacky.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03That's it, that's all the way through the house.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07I think she's an amazing woman to actually live through this,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10really, y'know, everything, from the floors to the roof,
0:10:10 > 0:10:16the walls the insulation, the electrics, heating, everything.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22It's dirty and it's cold and there's mud everywhere.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26Sybilla loves it, it's so important to me to know
0:10:26 > 0:10:29that she has a place she can call home
0:10:29 > 0:10:31and just be able to explore and have that freedom,
0:10:31 > 0:10:33but she does say it's cold and she's wondering
0:10:33 > 0:10:36when the house is going to be fixed.
0:10:40 > 0:10:45I can't decide whether Heather is heroic, brave
0:10:45 > 0:10:47or just plain bonkers
0:10:47 > 0:10:51for moving into a house that needs so much work,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55next to a crumbling mill where the building and the machinery
0:10:55 > 0:10:57is on its last legs.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02But there's no doubting the passion she and Nick share
0:11:02 > 0:11:06wanting to not only restore bricks and mortar,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09but also the sense of community at Coulton Mill,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11that sense of community that must have been lost
0:11:11 > 0:11:16when Thomas Harrison, the last miller who worked there,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19moved out in the 1950s.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23It was a community that had been there for centuries.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30Historian Dr Kate Williams is digging deep into the archives
0:11:30 > 0:11:34to try and find out how far back Coulton Mill goes.
0:11:35 > 0:11:40And architectural expert Kieran Long starts his investigation
0:11:40 > 0:11:44by examining the DNA of the buildings themselves.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49We have the road running through the site here
0:11:49 > 0:11:53almost, kind of, embracing the house in its, kind of, elbow
0:11:53 > 0:11:58and then behind us we have these two rather charmingly dilapidated barns,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02creating a very interesting little complex, little spaces
0:12:02 > 0:12:04in between these various buildings.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09It's very typical of a kind of pre-industrial farm complex
0:12:09 > 0:12:11and it's really, really beautiful,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14and the house itself has a certain kind of grace,
0:12:14 > 0:12:16you know, it's not just a farmhouse
0:12:16 > 0:12:19there's definitely some thought gone into it, large windows...
0:12:19 > 0:12:24The house is believed to date back to the 18th century.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Kieran quickly realises it must have always had a running battle
0:12:28 > 0:12:30with its natural surroundings.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Here they've had to build a huge retaining wall
0:12:33 > 0:12:37to hold back the hillside and carve a little space for the house to sit.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39It's incredibly damp here,
0:12:39 > 0:12:42there must be all of the water from surrounding hillsides,
0:12:42 > 0:12:44kind of, funnelling itself into this basin,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47undermining the building, more or less,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50or at the very least, kind of, compromising its fabric
0:12:50 > 0:12:52so it's quite amazing the building's still here.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55The original covering on the outside walls
0:12:55 > 0:12:57of Nick and Heather's house
0:12:57 > 0:13:00was designed to combat the damp environment.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03It's been rendered over with this lime render
0:13:03 > 0:13:05and that's quite an interesting technique,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08one that's quite typical in rural buildings
0:13:08 > 0:13:11because it's easy to repair and it uses locally available materials
0:13:11 > 0:13:15and we can see some of that up close here.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21You can see that this is not cementitious render, not cement.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25It's made of lime, you can see hairs, little pebbles in there
0:13:25 > 0:13:27and sticks and so on. It's really like earth.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30All of these buildings had to allow moisture in
0:13:30 > 0:13:34and, most importantly, out so that moisture didn't sit in the timber work
0:13:34 > 0:13:36or into the stone and start to destroy it,
0:13:36 > 0:13:41so the lime render is a vital part of that, kind of, breathing effect
0:13:41 > 0:13:43that these buildings needed to have.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48The derelict barns have survived the ravages of time less well.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52You have more signs of inhabitation here,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55initials carved into the doorpost.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00A tree trunk and other improvised supports
0:14:00 > 0:14:03appear to be all that's keeping the roof on the building.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07I don't want to touch these in case they all come crashing down,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10but it's as many bits of wood as it takes to kind of support this thing
0:14:10 > 0:14:13and, you know, it's quite charming to see this,
0:14:13 > 0:14:15but it does tell you a story about how poor
0:14:15 > 0:14:17the condition of these buildings really is.
0:14:23 > 0:14:25When Kieran steps inside the mill,
0:14:25 > 0:14:30he's surprised the crumbling wooden machinery has survived at all.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37It looks rather romantic with these cogs and wheels lying still,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40but when we take another step up here and you start to...
0:14:40 > 0:14:44When I put my hand on this beam, you can feel the moisture.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48I mean, it's absolutely sodden, all of this timberwork
0:14:48 > 0:14:52is in terrible, terrible condition, and as you look further down
0:14:52 > 0:14:54towards the ground where there's more moisture,
0:14:54 > 0:14:58you start to see more decay and even more degradation of the fabric.
0:15:00 > 0:15:02Without some kind of rescue,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06it's clear these extraordinary pre-industrial mill workings
0:15:06 > 0:15:08will eventually be lost forever.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13This is just one, no doubt in a network of mills,
0:15:13 > 0:15:18to process the food that provided bread to this whole region
0:15:18 > 0:15:23so this is a kind of snapshot of an England that's gone,
0:15:23 > 0:15:26that probably existed from the medieval period
0:15:26 > 0:15:29right up to the 19th century and to see all this stuff here now
0:15:29 > 0:15:33is really to get a flavour of England in that time.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39To get an idea of what Nick and Heather's mill was like when it was working,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Kieran makes a short journey across the countryside.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50This is Crakehall Mill, recently restored -
0:15:50 > 0:15:55and it once performed the same vital job as Coulton for its community.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59To me, what's kind of immediately striking is just how noisy it is.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01You know, my ear's right close to this wheel here
0:16:01 > 0:16:03and it's going like the clappers,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06it's really a piece of industrial machinery
0:16:06 > 0:16:09and, you know, you can imagine the forces at work here
0:16:09 > 0:16:11the building needs to withstand,
0:16:11 > 0:16:13and the machinery needs to withstand.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21The millstones are missing at Coulton,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23but here they still grind grain
0:16:23 > 0:16:25as Nick and Heather's building would have done,
0:16:25 > 0:16:29turning it into the staple ingredient for bread.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33This is what it's all about, producing this stuff,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36which is beautiful stone-ground wholemeal flour.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39This was the gold, the stuff that was driving
0:16:39 > 0:16:41both the wealth and economy of these places
0:16:41 > 0:16:44but also, just, people could subsist on this.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48We still have huge problems all over the world
0:16:48 > 0:16:50trying to create enough of this stuff
0:16:50 > 0:16:52to feed the world's population
0:16:52 > 0:16:55and this was the start of that effort.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59At Crakehall, you can see how the power of the water
0:16:59 > 0:17:02was harnessed to drive the mill.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06What happens is water is diverted from the river further up there
0:17:06 > 0:17:11into this long millpond and this is 100 metres long or more,
0:17:11 > 0:17:12contains a serious amount of water,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16but in a controlled way it then comes through this sluice gate
0:17:16 > 0:17:19and gives a consistent power to the waterwheel here.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22At Coulton, there probably would have been even more force acting
0:17:22 > 0:17:25because the water was coming from an even higher level
0:17:25 > 0:17:27driving the wheel from the top.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33Coulton Mill had what's known as an "overfall" waterwheel,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36using gravity to increase the power of the water.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39It meant the wall the wheel is attached to
0:17:39 > 0:17:41would have taken quite a battering
0:17:41 > 0:17:45and centuries of pounding are likely to have affected the whole house.
0:17:47 > 0:17:53Coulton's millpond, now dry, was on the high ground behind the building.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57We're now up at the roof level, the eaves level,
0:17:57 > 0:17:59but we're standing on the ground,
0:17:59 > 0:18:02which just tells you how dug into the hillside this building is,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05and of course it had to be
0:18:05 > 0:18:10because it needed to be able to use the drop in the geography
0:18:10 > 0:18:13and bring the water down at high pressure.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16We can see the, kind of, race, if you like,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19the moment where the water gets speeded up
0:18:19 > 0:18:22in order for it to shoot into the wheel and drive those massive stones
0:18:22 > 0:18:25and drive the gears that would be inside the mill house.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32Today, Coulton's waterwheel hasn't turned for over 60 years,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35and looks like it could fall to pieces at any moment.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Heather has recruited mill historian John
0:18:41 > 0:18:44and a team of helpers to see if they can do anything to save it.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49It's been sitting in water for probably 40, 50 years
0:18:49 > 0:18:53so they're trying to get the water to drain out of the wheel basin.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56When the wheel turned, water was channelled away
0:18:56 > 0:19:00into the mill's "tail-race" on the other side of the road,
0:19:00 > 0:19:05but the tail-race has been silted up for decades,
0:19:05 > 0:19:08leaving the wooden wheel perilously waterlogged.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13Heather and her helpers are trying to dig out the old race and get the water away.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16- Ah!- Ooh, ooh!
0:19:16 > 0:19:18There you are.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22We've got another one. Look, he's talking to you!
0:19:22 > 0:19:25Come on, little guy.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29They find local wildlife, but no solution to the problem.
0:19:29 > 0:19:31Despite hours of digging,
0:19:31 > 0:19:34the wheel is still rotting in a pool of stagnant water.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38But Heather refuses to abandon her dream.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41My aim is to still have the wheel turning.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44I think people will love to see that
0:19:44 > 0:19:47and I really want Sybilla to see that.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51The big question is whether the existing wheel
0:19:51 > 0:19:53will ever be capable of turning again.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56Nick and Heather have called in
0:19:56 > 0:20:01one of just a handful of experts in the UK who can advise them.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Martin Watts is a specialist millwright.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06There are two issues with the waterwheel.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10One is obviously getting the water here and on to the top of the wheel,
0:20:10 > 0:20:14but just as important is getting the water away from it.
0:20:14 > 0:20:15Is it worth doing?
0:20:15 > 0:20:18One option, of course, is just to leave it as it is
0:20:18 > 0:20:22and just to have it almost like a romantic ruin, really.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24That's fine, but it will deteriorate,
0:20:24 > 0:20:26it will get worse, it's also -
0:20:26 > 0:20:29when you look at the state of the timberwork, here,
0:20:29 > 0:20:31supplying the wheel with water -
0:20:31 > 0:20:33that's going to collapse.
0:20:33 > 0:20:38The millwright thinks the only solution will be a replica.
0:20:38 > 0:20:42It would be better to dismantle what's left of the waterwheel,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46which is enough to provide a very good pattern for building a new one,
0:20:46 > 0:20:50- which I think should be done in the same way.- I agree.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54The fact that it's atypical is very much part of its interest.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57But rebuilding the wheel will cost thousands.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00There's a bottom line with all these things and cost is that bottom line.
0:21:00 > 0:21:02I don't know how much exactly it's going to cost,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06but I think it's really worth making the effort with the wheel
0:21:06 > 0:21:09because it's so fundamental to what the building is and its past
0:21:09 > 0:21:10and it should be part of its future.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15As costs mount, Nick and Heather decide to investigate
0:21:15 > 0:21:19the possibility of a grant, not just for the waterwheel,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23but for their other plans to bring Coulton Mill back to life,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26including the restoration of the barns.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29We've looked at different options for applying for funding,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31we've looked at English Heritage and stuff like that,
0:21:31 > 0:21:33I've thought about a lottery grant,
0:21:33 > 0:21:36and it's very rare that a private place
0:21:36 > 0:21:39would actually get funding like that, it's usually for more civic things.
0:21:41 > 0:21:42After researching the options,
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Heather has decided to chance her arm
0:21:45 > 0:21:48and apply to the government agency, Natural England.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52It's a long shot, but she hopes the idea
0:21:52 > 0:21:56of opening Coulton Mill to the public might help the application.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59I'm, sort of, pushing the education side of it
0:21:59 > 0:22:01where I do want to have school visits
0:22:01 > 0:22:03and I do want to do quite a few of them
0:22:03 > 0:22:06because of the historical importance of the mill
0:22:06 > 0:22:09and its use within the community.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12We know that we have to do something like that in order to achieve
0:22:12 > 0:22:14the thing that we want to achieve.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18The wooden machinery in the mill
0:22:18 > 0:22:21is believed to date back to the 18th century,
0:22:21 > 0:22:23and Nick and Heather's house next-door is a similar age.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28But there's evidence there could have been a milling community here
0:22:28 > 0:22:29for much longer than that.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Historian Kate Williams
0:22:36 > 0:22:39has been trying to find the earliest reference to a mill at Coulton.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44There's nothing in the 11th-century Domesday Book,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47which mentions over 5,000 mills.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50But in the county archives,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53she finds a crucial 13th-century manuscript.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57It's a legal document which records a Walter of Colton
0:22:57 > 0:23:01acquiring a mill owned by the local abbey.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06This piece of paper is over 700 years old, about 1234,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10and it's about Coulton Mill being sold,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13being swapped for some land to a local man.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16It shows me what abbey it is - it's the convent of Byland,
0:23:16 > 0:23:19which is an abbey that we know was very near to here,
0:23:19 > 0:23:22and it was one of the big and most important abbeys of the area.
0:23:23 > 0:23:26It's so rare in Britain we can trace back our houses,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28many of our buildings, to that far back.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32I mean, this is the kind of thing we associate with Westminster Abbey,
0:23:32 > 0:23:33not somewhere we might live.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37Kate has established the mill was originally owned
0:23:37 > 0:23:40by a powerful order of medieval monks.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47They were based here,
0:23:47 > 0:23:52less than ten miles from where Nick and Heather live, at Byland Abbey.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59Architectural expert Kieran picks up the story.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01We've made a really exciting discovery
0:24:01 > 0:24:04that connects a mill at Coulton with this place,
0:24:04 > 0:24:09one of the three extraordinary, huge, rich, wealthy monasteries
0:24:09 > 0:24:13of this area of Yorkshire. Probably the other two are more famous - Rievaulx and Fountains -
0:24:13 > 0:24:16and these three abbeys dominated the landscape economically
0:24:16 > 0:24:20and were exactly the kind of concentrations of power and wealth
0:24:20 > 0:24:23that the Reformation and Henry VIII wanted to destroy,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26and indeed did, which is why we see this thing in ruins.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32When they owned the mill - and swapped it
0:24:32 > 0:24:36for Walter of Colton's land in the early 13th century -
0:24:36 > 0:24:39the Cistercian monks here were hugely influential
0:24:39 > 0:24:42in England's medieval world.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46They were incredibly sophisticated farmers here at Byland Abbey.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49They were selling futures in sheep to Italian traders
0:24:49 > 0:24:52and also, of course, they were milling and farming crops
0:24:52 > 0:24:55as well as fishing and lots of other things.
0:24:55 > 0:24:56We tend to see the mill now
0:24:56 > 0:24:59as a kind of isolated piece of machinery in the countryside,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01you know, there for grinding wheat,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03but actually it was part of a much bigger fabric
0:25:03 > 0:25:05of which this is the, kind of, heart, if you like.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09That's a complete transformation of our understanding of Coulton Mill.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19When I pay my first visit to Coulton Mill,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21the builders have already been in for months.
0:25:21 > 0:25:26To try and tackle the damp, they've installed underfloor heating,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29the first time the house has had any source of warmth
0:25:29 > 0:25:31apart from coal fires.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36But when the builders dug out the floor to install the heating pipes,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38they discovered a bigger problem.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40- Hello.- Hi, what are you doing?
0:25:40 > 0:25:45We're doing some drainage to take the water out of the house.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49- There's water in the house is there? - Well, it's just below the floor.- OK.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Because when we excavated the floor
0:25:52 > 0:25:56we found virtually a pond just below the floor.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59So the millpond has made its way under the house, has it?
0:25:59 > 0:26:01Yeah. Usually millponds aren't supposed to be in the dwelling.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03THEY LAUGH
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Sorting out the drainage will be an extra cost
0:26:08 > 0:26:10they hadn't bargained for.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15But with the heating now in and working, Heather can at least
0:26:15 > 0:26:19welcome Nick back from Afghanistan to a drier home.
0:26:19 > 0:26:20When they turned the heating on
0:26:20 > 0:26:23we just thought it was the most amazing thing
0:26:23 > 0:26:26because within a day, it took it about 24 hours to warm up,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30you could start feeling the warmth come up from the floor and it was fantastic.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33I've done this kind of restoration myself,
0:26:33 > 0:26:36but not with my other half over 3,000 miles away.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41It looks shockingly, sort of, dishevelled, doesn't it?
0:26:41 > 0:26:44But I, too, have lived like this.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46You must have had moments when you were here
0:26:46 > 0:26:50when Nick's away in Afghanistan when you thought, "What am I doing?"
0:26:50 > 0:26:52Yes, well, he knows. I'd call up on the telephone,
0:26:52 > 0:26:55"If I have to clean up another pile of dust
0:26:55 > 0:26:58- "I'm going to give up!"- Hard on your own, actually. I've never done that.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02- That must be...- It's just the cleaning and the constant,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05"OK, we've got to completely wipe down the table
0:27:05 > 0:27:07"before we even lay it for supper."
0:27:07 > 0:27:11It's important we work together on it and although we're... I'm a long way away,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14- I'd like to think it's a joint project with us, isn't it?- Yep.
0:27:14 > 0:27:19Although I have to admit, Heather is bearing the brunt of it right now.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23- Ooh!- Just be careful.- OK.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26'There's still a lot of work to do upstairs.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30'For now, when Nick's home, all three of them are sleeping in one room.'
0:27:30 > 0:27:35This is going to be the main bedroom in the house.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Obviously it'll be a lot tidier eventually.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Actually, given that you haven't got anywhere to put anything
0:27:41 > 0:27:43I think you're doing remarkably well.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51There are compensations for Heather when Nick's away.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56She acquires animals for the farm.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01Sybilla and I really love animals, Nick is getting there.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06My wife has a way of collecting things when I'm away.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09Piggy, piggy, piggies...
0:28:10 > 0:28:14The latest arrivals are five Oxford Sandy and Blacks -
0:28:14 > 0:28:15a rare breed of English porker.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19Big piggy!
0:28:23 > 0:28:27The growing menagerie also includes a flock of Hebridean sheep,
0:28:27 > 0:28:30an orphaned lamb called Charlie,
0:28:30 > 0:28:32two cats
0:28:32 > 0:28:36and two dogs, Henry and Pippin.
0:28:37 > 0:28:41The idea is the two derelict barns will eventually house animals.
0:28:41 > 0:28:47So far, it's been a matter of praying both buildings stay standing.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50There's a grant application in to help with restoration,
0:28:50 > 0:28:55but for now Nick and Heather must fund essential repairs themselves.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59One of the barns needs emergency structural work,
0:28:59 > 0:29:02and two supporting walls are being rebuilt
0:29:02 > 0:29:05and re-pointed using traditional lime mortar.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10Paying for that means work on the second barn will have to wait.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12I'd love to get this barn done, but the reality is
0:29:12 > 0:29:15we just don't have the money to do everything all at once
0:29:15 > 0:29:17and so the other barn, the end of the other barn,
0:29:17 > 0:29:20where the gable wall was particularly unstable
0:29:20 > 0:29:23was the priority and I'm glad that's been done,
0:29:23 > 0:29:27but I'm not convinced this is going to last another winter, not with the roof the way it is.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30Once you get water ingress coming in through the roof
0:29:30 > 0:29:32then it rapidly deteriorates.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37As Nick and Heather's restoration dilemmas mount,
0:29:37 > 0:29:39our investigations are shedding more light
0:29:39 > 0:29:41on the history of Coulton Mill.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47Historian Kate Williams has been tracing the mill's ownership
0:29:47 > 0:29:50after it passed from the monks at Byland Abbey
0:29:50 > 0:29:52to Walter of Colton in the 13th century.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58She's discovered that 500 years later,
0:29:58 > 0:30:03the owners were the Fairfax family, major Yorkshire landowners.
0:30:03 > 0:30:06The document she's found only exists
0:30:06 > 0:30:09because the Fairfaxes were Catholics,
0:30:09 > 0:30:15and in the early 1700s, Britain lived in fear of a papist uprising.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19This document is a papist land register. This one is from 1720.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22It is an account of all the land in the area
0:30:22 > 0:30:26owned by the Catholic landowners. People were genuinely afraid
0:30:26 > 0:30:29of a Catholic rebellion, a Catholic takeover,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32so the authorities need to keep a proper track
0:30:32 > 0:30:35of exactly what the Catholics have got, and Coulton Mill
0:30:35 > 0:30:39is listed as a crucial asset of a major Catholic family.
0:30:40 > 0:30:46The document also shows the mill was powered in the same way in 1720
0:30:46 > 0:30:50as it was when the wheel last turned in the 20th century.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53Coulton's waterwheel is described as "overfall",
0:30:53 > 0:30:56where the water strikes the top.
0:31:02 > 0:31:03Architectural expert Kieran
0:31:03 > 0:31:07has found a crucial piece of 18th-century research
0:31:07 > 0:31:09which suggests Coulton's waterwheel
0:31:09 > 0:31:13could well have made its millers wealthier than others.
0:31:13 > 0:31:18A member of the prestigious Royal Society, civil engineer John Smeaton
0:31:18 > 0:31:23conducted a series of scientific and mathematical experiments
0:31:23 > 0:31:26to test the effectiveness of overfall waterwheels,
0:31:26 > 0:31:30or "overshot" wheels, as they're more usually called.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35He presented to the Royal Society in 1759 his findings
0:31:35 > 0:31:38and his findings were that overshot wheels like Coulton Mill
0:31:38 > 0:31:41were nearly 100% more efficient than undershot wheels.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45They were extremely efficient because they used gravity
0:31:45 > 0:31:47as well as the momentum of the water
0:31:47 > 0:31:50and he proved it through numbers and through his own experiments.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54Coulton's waterwheel was ahead of its time.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58We know in the 1720s when the Fairfaxes owned Coulton Mill
0:31:58 > 0:32:00it had an overshot wheel, and that predates
0:32:00 > 0:32:02all of this work by Smeaton in 1759.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05That tells me that the Coulton Mill wheel
0:32:05 > 0:32:08would have been one of the most efficient in the country
0:32:08 > 0:32:11and it was efficient before it was proven to be efficient by Smeaton.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13It would have been a very important piece of machinery
0:32:13 > 0:32:16for the farming economy of that part of North Yorkshire.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21Nearly 250 years after Smeaton demonstrated
0:32:21 > 0:32:24the efficiency of overfall waterwheels,
0:32:24 > 0:32:27Nick and Heather's wheel is still in limbo,
0:32:27 > 0:32:30waiting to see if funding from Natural England
0:32:30 > 0:32:32might give it a new life.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40For now, the restoration of the house is still eating money.
0:32:42 > 0:32:47A natural stone fireplace, using local craftsmen and materials,
0:32:47 > 0:32:49is costing over £3,000.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52We've made it in our workshop just up the road.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56It's made out of Tadcaster limestone.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59It's York's most local limestone and at the moment
0:32:59 > 0:33:02it's being used on the restoration of York Minster.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05It's all been handcrafted with mallets and chisels
0:33:05 > 0:33:07and traditional stonemasonry tools
0:33:07 > 0:33:10and the customer wants it looking perfect.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Let's have a look. A-ha.
0:33:14 > 0:33:19Oh, it's absolutely stunning. You can now really see where the house is going.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23- What are you going to toast on the fire?- Toast.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Yes, that makes sense. What about marshmallows?
0:33:26 > 0:33:29- Marshmallows.- Yeah.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Isn't that beautiful?
0:33:33 > 0:33:37Outside, tackling the drainage problems that have plagued the house
0:33:37 > 0:33:40is also costing over £3,000 -
0:33:40 > 0:33:44money that was never in Nick and Heather's budget.
0:33:46 > 0:33:49But the builders hope they've reduced the risk
0:33:49 > 0:33:51of water flooding the house.
0:33:51 > 0:33:53It just wasn't escaping and that should now
0:33:53 > 0:33:58keep the water table at least another foot lower than it was.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01The drains are probably the last thing you ever think about
0:34:01 > 0:34:04and I must admit I hadn't realised that we were going to be
0:34:04 > 0:34:08spending a lot of money and a lot of time and effort doing drains.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18Now, just paint in there.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22A year after they moved in to Coulton Mill, Heather and Sybilla
0:34:22 > 0:34:26are finally able to start putting a personal stamp on the decor.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30Getting the plaster on the walls was a huge step
0:34:30 > 0:34:33because it cleaned up the house dramatically
0:34:33 > 0:34:36and now actually being able to paint,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39we just might have a dining room.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42- If you're standing there, I'm going to paint your leg.- OK.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46They're now trying to save on all their restoration costs
0:34:46 > 0:34:48to make their money go further.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52We did want to have people to decorate the house,
0:34:52 > 0:34:57but with new things that have happened and stuff like that
0:34:57 > 0:35:00it just adds up, and if we can save a little money here and there
0:35:00 > 0:35:03then that means we can get something else done all the quicker.
0:35:03 > 0:35:08Paint this wall. Paint this wall. Oh, dear.
0:35:08 > 0:35:11Sybilla is now four years old.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13I think it's so important that she has a part
0:35:13 > 0:35:15in the making of the house, too,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18because then she knows that she has a stake in it,
0:35:18 > 0:35:20she knows that it's part of her.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24She's chosen some of the colours herself, she's helping paint
0:35:24 > 0:35:26and she helps with all the animals
0:35:26 > 0:35:29so that will make the house mean a lot more to her.
0:35:31 > 0:35:33Because you are a mess.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45A few months later, with winter approaching,
0:35:45 > 0:35:49I discover there's good and bad news at Coulton Mill.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56- Hello!- How are you?- I'm fine.
0:35:56 > 0:36:00- How lovely to see you again. - You, too.- Absolutely fantastic.
0:36:00 > 0:36:05'Outside, they've made an extraordinary discovery on their own doorstep.'
0:36:05 > 0:36:07When we started to tidy up this area
0:36:07 > 0:36:10after the builders had piled up all that stuff to put the drains in,
0:36:10 > 0:36:16they actually uncovered these cobbles here so this is the original path that was in front of the house.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20It's beautiful, isn't it? It's absolutely wonderful.
0:36:20 > 0:36:24More than likely it runs from here all the way down.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27- Are you going to try and uncover it? - Well, watch this space.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31- That will be so wonderful, won't it? - That's my goal. We'll see.
0:36:33 > 0:36:35But with every exciting new development,
0:36:35 > 0:36:38there's a sobering reminder of what they've taken on.
0:36:39 > 0:36:41As they feared, the condition of the barn
0:36:41 > 0:36:45they couldn't afford to repair earlier in the year
0:36:45 > 0:36:48is now causing real concern.
0:36:48 > 0:36:52We're hoping to get some emergency repairs done before the winter
0:36:52 > 0:36:56because if we have a snowfall like last winter, the roof will collapse.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00There's, like, a big hole there and it's already started caving in.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02You can see it's lost a lot of tiles up there.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07They won't know about the funding to help with the barns until the New Year.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11They need to spend money now, or risk spending much more
0:37:11 > 0:37:13if the barn roof collapses.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16Every month we have money go in,
0:37:16 > 0:37:18about the second week it all goes back out
0:37:18 > 0:37:20so it's difficult at the moment.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24Some would see picturesque barns like these
0:37:24 > 0:37:27as prime candidates for conversion into holiday homes.
0:37:27 > 0:37:32Not Heather. She's counting on them to house more of the farm animals
0:37:32 > 0:37:34she likes to collect while Nick's away.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39- Tell me what you've got. - Is Nick going to find out about this?
0:37:39 > 0:37:41Not...yet.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43We have Pansy the goat
0:37:43 > 0:37:47- who came with Sammy.- The Shetland? - The very fat Shetland pony,
0:37:47 > 0:37:51and then I have the 13 ewes that are in the fields
0:37:51 > 0:37:53and then five pigs.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57I've got Gloria, Penelope, Big Piggy then Cabbage and Wilbur
0:37:57 > 0:38:00and Cabbage is going to be sausages very soon
0:38:00 > 0:38:03and Wilbur is our boar who is a typical man,
0:38:03 > 0:38:06he never escapes because he just knows we bring the food to him.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09But Wilbur is about to blot his copybook...
0:38:12 > 0:38:14SHE RATTLES SWILL
0:38:14 > 0:38:17- This is Sammy.- Sammy!
0:38:18 > 0:38:23'And I'm about to discover feeding the growing menagerie at Coulton Mill
0:38:23 > 0:38:26'can be chaotic, to say the least.'
0:38:26 > 0:38:28Everybody's coming!
0:38:28 > 0:38:31Hello, big, fat pony!
0:38:31 > 0:38:35- Oh, no. Pigs are out!- Oh, cripes.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40Instead of being in the field, the pigs have got on to the road...
0:38:40 > 0:38:41Penelope...
0:38:43 > 0:38:47- ..and prize boar Wilbur - who- never- escapes -
0:38:47 > 0:38:50needs to be wrangled towards his food.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56OK, his bottom's in.
0:38:57 > 0:38:59Oh, no - there's the other one.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03That's Gloria. Oh, dear.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06That's really embarrassing.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12'Later, Nick calls from Afghanistan on his satellite phone.'
0:39:13 > 0:39:15'I try to explain how the day's gone.'
0:39:16 > 0:39:21I'd like to tell you that the pigs haven't been out and about today on the road.
0:39:21 > 0:39:23I'd like to tell you that, but I'm afraid I can't.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26There's livestock everywhere, Nick.
0:39:26 > 0:39:27HE LAUGHS
0:39:31 > 0:39:33Are you missing it?
0:39:47 > 0:39:49Bless your heart.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54But the worst news for Nick and Heather
0:39:54 > 0:39:56lies right next-door, at the mill.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00Now there's an even bigger worry than the rotting waterwheel.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03Heather, the wheel is very, very beautiful,
0:40:03 > 0:40:07but it's looking... This whole area is looking a bit more derelict
0:40:07 > 0:40:11- than when I was last here. - It is. I mean it's quite critical.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14The wheel is one thing, but that's wood
0:40:14 > 0:40:15and you can rebuild the wheel.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19- It's the wall that we're most worried about.- Are you?
0:40:19 > 0:40:21- It looks so solid.- But it's not.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25- Is it in danger of coming down then? - It could be, yeah.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27An investigation by stonemasons
0:40:27 > 0:40:30has revealed that decades of silt in the foundations
0:40:30 > 0:40:33have steadily weakened the wall's fabric.
0:40:33 > 0:40:39It's a potentially catastrophic development that threatens the whole mill,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42but also at risk is physical evidence
0:40:42 > 0:40:46of a site that's been pivotal to the community for generations.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51In archives at the University Of York,
0:40:51 > 0:40:55historian Kate Williams finds evidence that Coulton's millers
0:40:55 > 0:40:58continued to prosper in the early 1800s.
0:41:01 > 0:41:07What I've got here is a will in 1811 by John Pearson of Coulton Mill.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09He's busy disposing his goods between his children.
0:41:09 > 0:41:14He gives £150 - quite a significant sum - to one son.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16And this was quite a profitable time to be a miller,
0:41:16 > 0:41:19particularly at the moment in the middle of the Napoleonic wars,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22there are no imports into Britain of food.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25There were blockades because of the war with France
0:41:25 > 0:41:29so the price of wheat was absolutely soaring.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Flour's expensive and there were riots about bread
0:41:32 > 0:41:35and this is something that millers were making huge amount of money from
0:41:35 > 0:41:38and clearly it's done well for John Pearson.
0:41:40 > 0:41:45After John Pearson's death, the mill passed to his son, George.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52And the earliest known pictures of Nick and Heather's building
0:41:52 > 0:41:56come from the time when the Pearsons were millers.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Architectural expert Kieran Long
0:41:59 > 0:42:03has found the book of early 19th-century countryside sketches
0:42:03 > 0:42:06by Yorkshire artist George Nicholson.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09It's very exciting for us to see
0:42:09 > 0:42:13that he was at Coulton Mill on August 15th, 1823.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16In this drawing here we have a beautiful rendition
0:42:16 > 0:42:18of the mill pond, which, of course, we can't see today,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20so that's incredibly valuable to us.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23With the bank here, kind of, fronded with grass, and then,
0:42:23 > 0:42:27of course, there's a lot of attention paid to the wheel itself.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31That very distinctive structure is represented here.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35We wish that some of the mechanisms were in the state they were in here,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38200 years ago we could still see that wheel turning, but nonetheless
0:42:38 > 0:42:42there's so much atmosphere here that still remains at Coulton Mill.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46And then of course the miller here standing at the doorway.
0:42:46 > 0:42:48I'm imagining that this is the gentleman
0:42:48 > 0:42:51who is responsible for the mill in the 1820s.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Other than the wheel in perfect working order and so on,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57this could be Heather standing outside the front door
0:42:57 > 0:43:00of the building today, not much has changed.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03But this idyllic 1823 sketch
0:43:03 > 0:43:07captures a rural industry whose days were numbered.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17Over the coming decades, the flour milling that had made Coulton
0:43:17 > 0:43:20the heart of its community for centuries
0:43:20 > 0:43:23would increasingly be done elsewhere.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25At places like this -
0:43:25 > 0:43:28Caudwell's Mill in Derbyshire.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34There's no pretty wooden watermill here -
0:43:34 > 0:43:37the power comes from an underfloor water turbine.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43The population in this country has exploded throughout the 19th century
0:43:43 > 0:43:45to a point where, you know, the kind of picturesque mills
0:43:45 > 0:43:48like Coulton just couldn't handle the job and, of course,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51this was the result - these incredible machines
0:43:51 > 0:43:56to produce large-scale amounts of flour that can feed a huge population.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59No longer is it efficient to mill a tonne a day
0:43:59 > 0:44:02in sometimes quite out-of-the-way places in the countryside -
0:44:02 > 0:44:06you can come to a place here and do ten tonnes in a day.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09It's a completely different kind of economy.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12The defining thing about Coulton Mill
0:44:12 > 0:44:14and these small waterwheel-driven mills
0:44:14 > 0:44:18is they have an intimate connection with one family who ran them,
0:44:18 > 0:44:20the miller and his family living next-door
0:44:20 > 0:44:23to a house-like thing with a couple of big millstones in it.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27This is much more like a place of work, an industrial place.
0:44:27 > 0:44:29The character of this place says factory much more
0:44:29 > 0:44:32than the, kind of, cottage industry of mills like Coulton.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42This is the last family to mill at Coulton - the Harrisons -
0:44:42 > 0:44:45who took over in 1881.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52Against the odds, they kept Coulton's waterwheel turning
0:44:52 > 0:44:54until well into the 20th century.
0:44:56 > 0:45:03Gillian Smith, nee Harrison, was born at Coulton Mill in the 1940s.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07This is a picture in the actual mill house
0:45:07 > 0:45:12of my grandfather, my mum, and my uncle
0:45:12 > 0:45:17sitting in among the sacks of grain, or flour perhaps.
0:45:17 > 0:45:19Apparently my grandfather
0:45:19 > 0:45:22was one of the first people to get a car in that area
0:45:22 > 0:45:26and he used to take family members for rides.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33Gillian remembers the house in the last years of its prime.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37It was very, very tidy outside,
0:45:37 > 0:45:39there was a white picket fence
0:45:39 > 0:45:42round the garden at the front, by the front door.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45And then over the years
0:45:45 > 0:45:50it seemed to lose its pristine appearance
0:45:50 > 0:45:54and it's such a shame to see a place like that deteriorate.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04Another winter starts to bite at Coulton Mill.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09Nick, home from Afghanistan, checks the mill's wall
0:46:09 > 0:46:12that's in danger of collapse.
0:46:12 > 0:46:13The gable end of the wall could fall down,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16and if that does, it's a deck of cards.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18If part of the building collapses, it's not what anyone wants,
0:46:18 > 0:46:23particularly when you've put everything you've got into it and it's your family's home.
0:46:23 > 0:46:28The old wheel still sits in water that they can't get to drain away.
0:46:30 > 0:46:32It's all looking pretty grim...
0:46:33 > 0:46:36..but a few weeks later, Natural England get in touch.
0:46:37 > 0:46:42We've had some really good news - well, extremely good news,
0:46:42 > 0:46:44it's like Christmas, what, in the middle of February -
0:46:44 > 0:46:50we did get funding to restore all of the outbuildings and also the mill.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54There's a grant of £50,000 for the mill,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57which means they can restore the waterwheel
0:46:57 > 0:47:00and repair the collapsing wall.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03And Natural England will contribute 80% of the cost
0:47:03 > 0:47:07of saving and restoring the two barns.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Getting the funding is a massive breakthrough.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13It's a great feeling knowing that we're going to restore the wheel.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16It's really exciting knowing that that is part of history that's
0:47:16 > 0:47:21actually going to be working again for further generations to see.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26Buoyed up by the grant,
0:47:26 > 0:47:30Heather decides to begin getting Coulton Mill back on the map.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32Today is National Mills open weekend
0:47:32 > 0:47:37and mills all over the country are opening to the public and so,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40obviously, we have a mill and so we decided to open it.
0:47:40 > 0:47:44It's a chance for us to show people what type of work
0:47:44 > 0:47:47we are going to actually start doing on the mill.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52- That waterwheel turning turns this wheel.- Oh, cool.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56Because the gearing system is so rare
0:47:56 > 0:47:59they want to actually preserve that as opposed to restore it.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02- Will you be living here? - Oh, yes - we live in the house.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05With a steady flow of locals - and tea -
0:48:05 > 0:48:08Nick and Heather were overwhelmed by the reception,
0:48:08 > 0:48:13but the guest of honour was the last miller's son, Simon Harrison.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17You know, I never lived here. My dad did. Just even seeing the little walls built, you know,
0:48:17 > 0:48:21you can start imagining what it was like in his day.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24We know now that it's not going to fall down,
0:48:24 > 0:48:27it's not going to get any worse and it's only going to improve.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30I think it's a fantastic landmark now. He'd have been over the moon with this.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Having let the locals know their plans for the future of the mill,
0:48:34 > 0:48:37it's time for Kate and Kieran to fill Nick and Heather in
0:48:37 > 0:48:41on everything we've learnt about its past.
0:48:41 > 0:48:44That was so amazing to me that we can find a document
0:48:44 > 0:48:47charting its sale going right back to the 13th century.
0:48:49 > 0:48:50The physical presence of that
0:48:50 > 0:48:54is a physical link to the people who actually wrote it.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56Practical knowledge of the miller was a century ahead
0:48:56 > 0:48:59of the scientific knowledge of the Royal Society.
0:48:59 > 0:49:02He knew it was faster, he knew it was better.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05We found an extraordinary book of sketches
0:49:05 > 0:49:08of which one was often Coulton Mill,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10of an artist who went around the countryside
0:49:10 > 0:49:13recording vernacular farm buildings.
0:49:13 > 0:49:14- These people are probably... - Workers.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16Well, or the Pearsons themselves.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21I think to live in a place like that with all of that behind you,
0:49:21 > 0:49:25that history behind you, it's a huge responsibility, firstly,
0:49:25 > 0:49:30and also just to make sure that you preserve that for the next 700 years.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39Generations of millers have left their mark at Coulton Mill,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43but now, after years of decay, it's time for me to find out
0:49:43 > 0:49:46if it's ready for a new chapter -
0:49:46 > 0:49:52as a family home to Heather, Nick, Sybilla and their animals.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54It feels like a proper little farmyard now.
0:49:54 > 0:49:56- It's alive again. - It is alive again, isn't it?
0:49:56 > 0:49:58It was quite still for a long time
0:49:58 > 0:50:00and actually, probably for the first time in its history,
0:50:00 > 0:50:04but now it's back again being what it always was.
0:50:04 > 0:50:08- It also sounds very different now from when I first came here. - Dogs barking.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11Dogs, sheep, cockerels, the pigs are making a noise -
0:50:11 > 0:50:14it sounds alive, the place, doesn't it?
0:50:14 > 0:50:19It's going to become more and more alive. I mean, you can see them starting stabilising the buildings,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22so once those are up and running then it's fair game for the animals.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25I'm really hoping that there might be something
0:50:25 > 0:50:27different in the house when I come in and have a look.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Well, wait till you see it. We are really excited about it.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34Oh, good, well, so am I. Let's have a look.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37They started with a building consumed by damp
0:50:37 > 0:50:40and carpeted in mould.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44Living amongst this restoration was a constant battle,
0:50:44 > 0:50:48so how does the inside of Coulton Mill look today?
0:50:58 > 0:51:01Oh, this is beautiful, Heather.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08'They have transformed the old miller's parlour
0:51:08 > 0:51:11'into a stately family dining room,
0:51:11 > 0:51:16'in stark contrast to the bustling farmyard outside.'
0:51:16 > 0:51:22It's a finished, living space. How do you feel to be in here?
0:51:22 > 0:51:24It's wonderful. I mean, I still remember
0:51:24 > 0:51:27trying to come through the front door with wellies on
0:51:27 > 0:51:30wading through the mud to get to the kitchen
0:51:30 > 0:51:35and to actually have heating...
0:51:35 > 0:51:38We walk around in socks, most of the time.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41'By using earthy colours and natural materials
0:51:41 > 0:51:46'the decor is unmistakably rooted in the mill's rural setting.'
0:51:46 > 0:51:49It's almost like being in the apple orchard.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51Well, they're all our trees.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54- These are paintings of your trees? - Yes.
0:51:54 > 0:51:56So each painting takes a year to do.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00It's the tree itself and then the apples from that tree and blossom.
0:52:00 > 0:52:02It's three seasons throughout the year.
0:52:02 > 0:52:04There are times in the last few days
0:52:04 > 0:52:05I've just sat and looked at the place
0:52:05 > 0:52:08and just thought, actually, we've done what we wanted to.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10It's not often you can say that, really.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14'Out of respect for the building's history,
0:52:14 > 0:52:16'Nick and Heather made a commitment to local craftsmen
0:52:16 > 0:52:19'and local materials throughout the house.'
0:52:19 > 0:52:22The detail of the work, the quality of the workmanship.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24Beautiful stone that you've used,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27the wood that you've used throughout the house.
0:52:27 > 0:52:29I think you've done fantastically well.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32It's interesting working with people who are craftspeople
0:52:32 > 0:52:35who love what they do and are very proud of their own work
0:52:35 > 0:52:38and once you get an affinity with people like that
0:52:38 > 0:52:41then quite often they will go the extra mile to try and help you
0:52:41 > 0:52:44because they understand you're trying to achieve the same objectives.
0:52:44 > 0:52:48When they first moved to the house, the room that would be Sybilla's
0:52:48 > 0:52:51on the first floor was in a critical condition.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56The ceiling had collapsed and it looked as if it would never be homely again.
0:53:01 > 0:53:06Today, it's a peaceful space where she can play with her toys
0:53:06 > 0:53:09and briefly NOT be covered in mud.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17Downstairs, the room that was planned to be the family sitting room
0:53:17 > 0:53:21was in an even worse condition than Sybilla's bedroom.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24Sitting in water, with crumbling walls,
0:53:24 > 0:53:29this was a room far removed from their dream of a warm, dry sanctuary
0:53:29 > 0:53:32that they could enjoy as a family.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41Oh.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45Your beautiful sitting room.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48I get a very real sense that this
0:53:48 > 0:53:52is starting to feel like a real family home.
0:53:52 > 0:53:57It's just been a massive switchover from all of the mess
0:53:57 > 0:54:00to where we can actually just sit down.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03I can actually read stories to her in this room
0:54:03 > 0:54:06without having dust flying everywhere.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10Do you feel like you are almost part of the land and the house here?
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Everyone has put their own mark on the place.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15I mean, for almost 1,000 years,
0:54:15 > 0:54:18all of the millers that have been here and their families
0:54:18 > 0:54:24and the animals - they've all added their own mark to the place.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27Do you see your future very much here?
0:54:27 > 0:54:30I'm not going anywhere. HE LAUGHS
0:54:30 > 0:54:34I am not going anywhere. I'm not living in a building site again.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36No, I'm staying right here.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40So you'll be here for as long as you can imagine?
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Well, when the barns are finished then getting some cows, then...
0:54:46 > 0:54:48- You never know.- Oh, Nick...
0:54:53 > 0:54:57Livestock aside, they had budgeted £50,000
0:54:57 > 0:54:59to make the mill house a home.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01So far they've spent £60,000,
0:55:01 > 0:55:05which has saved the house and given them a series of comfortable rooms.
0:55:10 > 0:55:15But this project has been about saving more than a home.
0:55:15 > 0:55:18Nick has just planted a huge apple orchard
0:55:18 > 0:55:21featuring a mix of rare Yorkshire varieties
0:55:21 > 0:55:25that will take years to mature, but it's the grant
0:55:25 > 0:55:29that will enable them to give this site a real future,
0:55:29 > 0:55:33not just for them, but also for the wider public.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36How much money have you managed to get from Natural England?
0:55:36 > 0:55:40We're able to access up to £200,000.
0:55:40 > 0:55:43We will pay a percentage of that and it's spread over a number of years.
0:55:43 > 0:55:46It requires us to be able to have education access
0:55:46 > 0:55:47and be able to have a wider public access.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51And you're happy to do that, aren't you? That's always been part of your plan?
0:55:51 > 0:55:53- Oh, quite happily, yeah. - It would be totally wrong, really,
0:55:53 > 0:55:55to try to seal all of this place off
0:55:55 > 0:55:57and not let people experience it as they've always done
0:55:57 > 0:55:59because that's what it always was -
0:55:59 > 0:56:02it's always been for a wider community and we're delighted to be part of that.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05It must be quite exciting, actually, to meet people
0:56:05 > 0:56:08that are as excited by this group of buildings as you are.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11One of the building team we've got was looking at the mortar from the barn
0:56:11 > 0:56:16and explaining that it was mainly mud as well as a little bit of lime, which is quite unique to the area
0:56:16 > 0:56:19and when you know you've got someone around you who's really excited
0:56:19 > 0:56:23about mud and mortar then you know they are quite passionate about what they're doing.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25They're going to take it seriously.
0:56:25 > 0:56:29Heather, do you really believe that that wheel will turn again?
0:56:29 > 0:56:32Well, according to the management plan,
0:56:32 > 0:56:35it is possible that the mill will turn again.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37It would be amazing, wouldn't it,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40to come down the road into the valley and to hear the water.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Wouldn't that be amazing? Do you think that will happen?
0:56:43 > 0:56:46- It will, yes. Definitely. - I'd love to see that.
0:56:59 > 0:57:05Nick and Heather have transformed a crumbling, damp wreck
0:57:05 > 0:57:08into a wonderful family home,
0:57:08 > 0:57:12but more than that, they've transformed this entire valley -
0:57:12 > 0:57:17it's now alive with the sound of Heather's growing menagerie of pigs,
0:57:17 > 0:57:21her chickens and her sheep, and more than that
0:57:21 > 0:57:24they have managed to secure funding for the mill wheel.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30They are in the memory of the millers that came before,
0:57:30 > 0:57:32keeping alive centuries of tradition.
0:57:32 > 0:57:38This has been much more than a restoration of bricks and mortar -
0:57:38 > 0:57:42this has been about saving a disappearing way of life.