Category Archives: Current Projects

TOCKETTS MILL

The Trust’s first project was the painstaking restoration of this mid-19th century watermill near Guisborough. Although privately owned it is still operated by the Trust and the Friends of Tocketts Mill as a working museum and is open to visitors on Sunday afternoons in the spring and summer months.

Restoration was started in the 1970s by Peter Morgan, Peter Oberon and John Harrison and students from South Park Sixth Form College, Normanby.

In 1982 Tees Heritage (then called Cleveland Buildings Preservation Trust) leased the building from the owners of the adjoining caravan park. John Harrison and Peter Morgan, as directors of the Trust then continued their work on the mill using labour recruited under the Manpower Services Commission’s job creation schemes and opened the mill to visitors.

In 1982 a group of volunteers, The Friends of Tocketts Mill was set up. Since that time the Friends, co-ordinated by Alan Burgess, have operated the mill for the benefit of the public. In 1991 there were 642 visitors to the mill.

In 2008-2009 the building was re-roofed and inappropriate ribbon pointing removed from the walls by the new owners, The Hornsea Caravan Parks Limited (Davis and Paul Allison).

EARTHBEAT PROJECT

This is another advisory role for the Trust. The project occupies the grade II listed former Saltburn Girls’ High School, lately used as a primary school and recently replaced by a new school nearby. The old school has been converted to a multi-purpose community facility to accommodate drama and theatrical productions performed by people with learning difficulties.

SALTBURN VALLEY GARDENS

The Trust provides specialist conservation advice to the Saltburn Valleys Charitable Incorporated Organisation (C.I.O.), formed in 2017 to promote the conservation, protection and improvement of the three Saltburn Valleys for the benefit of residents and visitors.

Briefly the valleys comprise Hazel Grove, Saltburn Valley Gardens with Riftswood and Saltburn Gill. The organisation’s aims and objectives are to:

• Improve environmental, river and woodland management;
• enhance the facilities for leisure and recreation;
• provide interpretation of the historic and natural heritage of the valleys;

They aim to achieve these through volunteering, fundraising and by working with the community, businesses, the Borough and Parish Councils and with the support of Tees Heritage Trust.

In 2018 a Conservation Management Plan was commissioned for the Saltburn Valley Gardens and Riftswood, later expanded to include Saltburn Gill and Hazelgrove.

Right now the C.I.O. is about to make a joint bid, with Redcar and Cleveland Council, to the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore and enhance the heritage and environment of the three valleys for future generations.
They want to recruit as many people as possible to support their bid and so we invite you to complete this short survey before the end of July 2020.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/saltburn-valley-gardens

This downloadable leaflet provides more information about the C.I.O. and the Valley Gardens with an invitation to join the membership – which is free. If you’re interested in joining up, please use the form at the back of the leaflet.

The C.I.O.’s website can be found at https://www.saltburnvalleys.org.uk/