A Carlisle corn mill will open its doors for free in September to mark the annual celebration of England's architecture and culture.
Warwick Bridge Corn Mill was initially built in the 12th century, although most of the present structure was rebuilt back in 1839.
In the early 1980s, the mill was entered onto the National Heritage List for England Register at Grade II but it was only in 2019 that the mill would be turned into the business it is today.
The mill was in dereliction from 1989 until the current landlords, Cortura, secured a loan to buy it.
After around £2m of investment and four years of work from 2015 to 2019, Cortura approached a team of volunteers about starting to business.
Gill Bruce, who volunteers at the mill, said: "We set up a community business and a share deal for people to buy into the business.
"We set up a bakery, but that was about three weeks before Covid. It wasn’t the best of timings but it’s 2023 and we are still here.
"We open September for the heritage open days because a substantial amount of the funding came from the heritage lottery fund as well as the Wolfson Foundation.
"There’s a huge list of people right throughout Cumbria who provided funding through Cortura to do the refurbishment."
The corn mill is usually open on Thursdays and Sundays for tours, which cost £5 a head, and they wanted to ensure that everyone has the chance to see the mill in action during this month's heritage days, beginning on Sunday, September 10.
Gill said: "As part of Heritage Days, we will open free to the public to make sure that folk who normally couldn’t afford entrance fees can access heritage buildings.
"We buy in, as a business, UK-sourced grain via various grain merchants, and we mill it. We’ve got an on-site bakery, where we bake everything from sausage rolls to cakes. But the vast majority of it is bread, with about 70kg each week.
"People can come and wander around, with volunteers on every floor of the building for anyone who has questions.
"We usually run a little market stall with things that have been baked on-site available to buy. Depending on the weather, we might do tea and coffee.
"Our miller Karen, will be milling. It’s children in particular that we want to reach out to, to show them how bread can be a much more nutritious item than the one you see in shops for 50p.
"We want them to see the journey of the grain coming in from the farmer’s fields, show them the flour, show them the milling process and the baking.
"It shows them just how important bread can be."
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