Darley 3 mills

Darley is a village just down the river from Dacre Banks. By the river trail it is less than 3 miles away. In a car it is a little bit further and up and down several hills. Darley is an interesting village. It has a village shop/post office, inn (The Wellington), and a number of other businesses. Much like Dacre Banks, it was also on the railroad that ran from Harrogate to Pateley Bridge.

Darley also has at least 3 original mill buildings in it. All three are now either housing or being converted into housing. These building were originally built in the 1700's and used a waterwheel to provide the power for the industry. Over time, that was updated to be steam and then eventually electricity. Most of the mills were originally for grinding stuff, but over time the purpose changed. Some of the last active mills lasted into the 1960's and were by that time making different fiber based products or grinding corn. The majority of the mills closed between the world wars. If you look closely, you can find many remnants from the industrial times.

Check out my walk on Strava: https://strava.app.link/9Lqc2UUM70b

The first mill is in the heart of Darley. Fringill Mill is now housing, but up until the 1960's it was an active concern. It would have originally been powered by a waterwheel sourced from the beck running right by the mill. The Village has a great sign providing additional details.

The beck doesn't look that strong today, but it would have been stopped up by a weir behind the mill, and a chute/flue would have forced the water to the wheel.

The second mill in Darley is currently going under conversation into housing. There has been a mill on this site since the 17th century, and the current building dates to 1800. This mill had also been in use as a corn mill up until the 1960's and there was still a water wheel at the building (not sure if it is going to survive the current conversion or not). The building had a 30 year use as mixed use (small stores) shopping place, but was emptied in 2011. It is currently being converted into residential units (2, 3, & 4 bedroom flats) with additional buildings being built behind the mill.

If you look closely in the 3rd picture, you can see the arch where the water from the flume feeding the waterwheel rejoined the Darley Beck.

Just across the road and down stream less than 1/4 mile, another smaller mill now exists as a private residence. This house was powered by a waterwheel as well, and the weir (overflowing dam) used an unusual stair step approach. Most of the weir's just have the water simply flow over them. This one has a very cool set of steps!

The mill is now the private home with the deck. It must be a nice view. In the short walk between the two mills, I also came across this archway in the stone wall. Yorkshire men do not put these in walls for fun - so this indicates to me that there was another inflow of water from another mill, but all evidence of that mill are gone now.

I would rate this as an easy hike. All three mills could be seen via a hiking loop around Darley and is under 4 miles with only a couple of short hills. The biggest challenge for me today was the amount of mud in the fields and some hungry sheep that thought I was the farmer bringing lunch!

This whole Nidderdale area is full of old mill buildings, some large, and some small.