THE STORY OF THE MILL

The building dates back hundreds of years, and it was initially an industrial building. Up until the 1890’s, High Mill (now Riverside B&B) was the village corn mill, after which it became a sawmill. In 1912 the Bainbridge Electric Lighting Company took over the site. They had William Handley Burton of West Mill, Askrigg install a Vortex water turbine manufactured by Gilkes of Kendal. The turbine was rated at 10 Horse Power and the cost of bringing Bainbridge an electricity supply was £414 “…being the value of the turbine, battery, generator, cable and works”. The company prospered and by 1929 was running 12 street lamps and supplying electricity to 60 private consumers. Demand grew and in 1943 the company had to put in a diesel engine to provide extra power. The National Grid reached Upper Wensleydale a few years later and the mill returned to being a sawmill, driven by the old water turbine. It continued in this use until 1998.