This September we are taking part in the Illuminated Sheep Arts Trail across Hadrian's Wall country.  Two sheep were collected from Hexham last Thursday and travelled across to Maryport in Sue's car, they spent a night at The Settlement and have now started their work placement at Senhouse Roman Museum where they will be meeting visitors and anyone who joins in our Heritage Open Days event this coming Saturday.  See if you can spot them out and about across the length of the wall.                    

It's that time of year again - your chance to explore some of our cultural heritage for free.  With hundreds of properties around the country open during the ten day festival it's a good idea to plan ahead by looking at the online event directory  https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/visiting/advanced-search   and see what's on in your area.    Three we have links with are shown below. Sunday 8th September finds Warwick Bridge Corn Mill open for guided tours and the chance to see the miller in action:  https://warwickbridgecornmill.co.uk Thursday 12th September finds Gayle Mill open  with our volunteers ready to show you around the three floors of this fascinating water mill and see some of the historic woodworking machinery in operation:  https://gaylemill.org for something a bit different, why  not head over to Maryport in Cumbria and discover What Lies Beneath with our New Wave event on the evening of Saturday 7th September.  A digital treasure hunt with the added bonus of Roman inspired food at Senhouse Museum.    You will need to have installed the Your Tour app before the event to get the full experience.  YourTour - Explore like never before. (goyourtour.com)  

[caption id="attachment_4701" align="alignnone" width="300"] looking a bit tired[/caption] Our small band of volunteers at the mill have been working hard bringing some of the Victorian woodworking machinery back to life and demonstrating it to curious visitors on our regular Thursday open days. Up till now, they've been using offcuts of scrap wood but they've just taken on their first little community project so the machinery will be being used on "real" wood. In the village of Thwaite in Swaledale there are two hardwood memorial benches which were donated to the village some years ago. They have been a welcome perch for foot weary walkers and many a passenger waiting for the Little White Bus which travels around the Dales but are now in need of some tender care themselves.  With the permission of the donor families, the benches have been brought to the mill and are now awaiting repair.  They've been washed and measured and we'll be using the Victorian machinery to make new planks and whatever other parts are needed to restore the benches to their former glory. Regular updates can be found on the group's facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GayleMill1784 We'll post pictures here of the benches once the renovation is complete.     Open Thursdays Between 10 and 4 Gayle Mill DL8 3RZ   What3words: opts.sending.belief

This year's National Mills Weekend will take place on 11th and 12th May 2024.  With the theme of "Enjoy your mill - get involved" this is the perfect opportunity for you to visit and learn more about our mills at Gayle, Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales and Warwick Bridge just outside Carlisle in Cumbria.  Both mills will 

be open as part of this fantastic festival of all things wind and watermill related on Sunday 12th May between 10 and 4.   

More information about mills open as part of the festival can be found on the SPAB websitehttps://www.spab.org.uk/mills/national-mills-weekend