- PENNY ELLIS -
THORALBY
THROUGH TIME
Thoralby Mill - Piggeries
Allred Rowntree had introduced pigs to Thoralby dairy as a means of using up the whey from producing cheese. When the mill premises and former dairy were sold in 1948 to Thomas Heseltine of Eastburn Farm, Newbiggin with a covenant preventing him from operating a dairy. Thomas Heseltine expanded the pig business and bought young 'weeners' to fatten up, using the whey from Hawes Dairy where Wensleydale cheese was being made.
With the mill no longer used as a dairy for the production of cheese the ground flour of the mill and the adjoining building added to house the pigs by Rowntree's were now all used for the rearing of pigs, about 90-100 were fattened and the sold and the process would start again.
In 1950 Kit Calvert and Richard Guy bought the mill building and the piggery from Thomas Heseltine in 1950 and four years later Kit Calvert bought out Richard Guy and continued the piggery business on his own.
In 1968, Kit closed the piggery and sold the former mill to Jack Lunn who converted it into apartments. There had been a number of complaints about the smell from the piggery and Kit had become heavily involved in the development of Hawes Dairy, it seemed an ideal time to sell.
Thoralby Water Mill - as Accommodation
The former Mill was converted into a ground floor flat and two, two storey apartments. The stable and loft were converted into a house several years later.
Below is an Article in the Yorkshire Post dated 1970, listing all the conversions of old buildings Jack Lunn undertook in the area. Courtesy of The Jack Lunn Group.
Below is the conversion of the Mill into accommodation. Courtesy of Ann Holubecki, 1980s.
