The Watermill Behind Darras Hall
Darras Hall was developed on the land of what was originally three farms and there are still some clues as to its agricultural origins remaining today.
Mill — audio guide
One of the farms was Little Callerton. This stood just to the south of what is now Runnymede Road. Running down from this, just next to the River Pont stood the farm’s threshing mill (or thrashing mill as it used to be called).
Threshing corn was the process of separating the wheat from chaff and straw and needed to be done before the wheat could be milled into flour. It was a cumbersome job and one of the first to become mechanised. Before steam engines became readily available, this was carried out by machines which were horse-powered or water-driven.
At first Little Callerton used horse-power and had a gin-gang (a horse powered engine-house) next to a barn. Sometime before 1860 however this was supplanted by a water mill built down by the river powered by a mill-race supplied from a pond dug out just down the lane from the farm. This was damned with a sluice gate which could be opened to release the water to flow down the bank to power the mill.
The farm was advertised to let in 1872 and the notice carried a nice description of the mill: “There is a commodious and powerful thrashing mill propelled by water and belonging to the proprietor”.
In 1907 the farm and buildings were sold to a consortium of business men who parceled the land out for resale as building plots. Little Callerton Farm and the mill were some of just a handful of pre-existing buildings which were sold.
Runnymede Road is now the most prestigious address in the North East of England and the building plots have been covered with mansion houses but up until 1960, the mill pond was still easy to identify and the mill building was converted into No.106 Runnymede Road. It’s difficult to discern, but it looks as if it still retains many elements of the original building. There has recently been a new housing development next to the river alongside this building which had been named Mill View.
The mill pond now forms the front lawn of one of the large houses on the southern side of Runnymede Road.