Bob's Mellor Mill Diary
Bob (Robert Humphrey-Taylor) is leading the excavations at Mellor Mill.
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Bob's Mill Diary - December 12, 2011, to architects and others
As I expect you have heard we were successful in gaining the £6000 grant towards out Visitor Centre at the Roman Lakes. The building is to be straw bale and lime plastered construction. Our next stage is to gather a small group of people with the relevant expertise to move the project on to planning application stage. Towards that end I have Greg Pike (architect), Jim Fabby (architect), the owner of Bottoms Hall (sustainability of buildings), myself (builder), Bernard Sewart (owner) and John Hearle (Chair, Mellor Archaeological Trust). We thought you would be interested in joining this group and would like to invite you along when we arrange our next meeting.
Bob's Mill Diary - February 2, 2012, to volunteers
Firstly a Happy New Year to all. Secondly I am pleased to announce that there is to be an official opening of the Wellington Wheel Pit to the public on March 10th. Please find your invitation attached below and I look forward to meeting many of you there.
If the weather improves it is my intention to re-commence our weekend activities at the Mill site on Saturday 17th March. The application for the Heritage Lottery bid was submitted last December and we should know whether or not we have been successful at stage one sometime during March.
I am aware that some of you have been braving the winter weather and have continued to work on the cobbled area at the front of the Mill - Thank You very much it is looking better every time I go down.
The last few days have seen the tyres from the viewing area removed and the debris cleared in readiness for the opening.
Bob's Mill Diary - March 2, 2012, to volunteers
We are planning a pre-official-opening "tidy up session" around the Wellington Wheel Pit area on Saturday 3rd March 9am with a contingency day of Sunday 4th March 9 am. Hopefully it will not take long if we have many hands.
I'm looking forward to seeing you all at the opening on 10th.
Bob's Mill Diary - March 9, 2012
If you watch BBC Regional News at 6.30 this evening there should be a piece by Colin Sykes on the Wellington Wheel Pit.
Hope to see many of you tomorrow at the Official Opening at 11 am down at Mellor Mill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckLyEOsJyEQ
Bob's Mill Diary - March 14, 2012, to volunteers
As you know our volunteer weekends down at the Mellor Mill start again this weekend (9am - 4pm Sat and Sun). We are hoping this will be an even more exciting year than last as tomorrow (Thursday) we learn whether or not we have been successful in our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund at Stage 1. Clearly the plan of action for work will be very different if we are successful. The opening event for the Wellington Wheel Pit last weekend was a huge success and has generated a lot of additional interest in what we have achieved so far. In addition to the Radio and TV cover last week we also have an article in the Stockport Express this week and I will follow that up with a letter to the editor asking for more volunteers.
I think it would be a good idea for us to have a bit of a do sometime in April. I am thinking of a BBQ on Sunday 15th April. We will provide salads, BBQ and a glass of wine if you can bring your own meat, plates and glasses. If you are interested please let me know so we can keep a track of numbers.
I hope to see many of you for some or all of the weekend.
[The bid to HLF was unsuccessful, but we were encouraged to put in a new application jointly with British Waterways, who had submitted a bid for the Peak Forest Canal in Marple, which was promoted by Oldknow.]