Castle Mill and Newark Mill

By Charles Laing

The mills that we visited on the anniversary weekend both feature in the episodes “The Haunted Mill” and “The Road in the Air”. From watching these two episodes the viewer is led to believe that the mill is the same one but as we will see they used the two mills to create one.

Only one of the mills exists today, Castle Mill at Dorking and this is now fully restored and lived in as a private dwelling.  Some of us were lucky enough to visit the mill on the anniversary weekend.

CASTLE MILL Dorking

Located to the east of Dorking just off the A25 it is completely hidden and situated adjacent to the River Mole.  It was owned by W.H. Atkinson and closed in 1952.  It slowly started to deteriorate and permission was granted to convert it for residential use.  If you look closely at the still from the series you can see the writing rather poorly covered up….W&H ATKINSON CASTLE MILL DORKING.

Castle Mill as in The Haunted Mill (see the clearly defined W&H Atkinson).

Castle Mill

 

Castle Mill as private dwelling.

NEWARK MILL

Newark Mill with possible TV aerial?

As previously mentioned, it features in both the episodes mentioned and was located on the River Wey and the Wey navigation.  It was a huge building that again closed and remained empty for a long period.  There were various attempts at changing its use including a restaurant nightclub which was not very popular with local people.  The mill burnt down in 1966 in controversial circumstances, certainly arson but according to local recollections it was down to children and possibly not as deliberate as others might intimate.

Site of Newark Mill links to the position the above picture is taken from.