
Gradbach Mill Youth Hostel - Cheshire, UK
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Superted
N 53° 11.495 W 002° 00.658
30U E 566079 N 5894039
A Former Flax Mill & Farmhouse in the Staffordshire Moorlands. Only available to groups with the exception of school holidays when it is open to families and individuals.
Waymark Code: WM5P4A
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/28/2009
Views: 12
The hostel sleeps 66. The farmhouse building opposite is also available for hire. There are some good walks to be had straight from the hostel.
I have rented this hostel twice and both times it has been great. I also know people who have stayed there when it is open to individuals and they too have found it a good hostel.
History:
In 1792 Thomas and James Oliver of Longnor and Thomas White of Hartington (Derb.) took a 31-year lease from Sir Henry Harpur of land by the Dane at Gradbach in order to build a mill to spin wool, cotton or silk. The mill was duly built, but in 1794 the lessees, then described as cotton spinners, dealers, and chapmen, went bankrupt. In 1798 the remainder of the lease was transferred to John and Peter Dakeyne, cotton spinners of Darley (Derb.). They converted the mill to flax spinning and erected a warehouse. In 1837 the buildings included the mill and two warehouses, of two and three storeys; there was also a large house. The mill provided employment for 64 people in 1838. The Dakeyne family continued as lessees, and in 1850 Bowden Dakeyne worked both flax and silk at the mill. He still ran it in 1864, but it had been closed by 1868. In 1978 the Youth Hostels Association bought the land and buildings from the HarpurCrewe estate and converted both the mill and the mill house into a hostel, opened in 1984 as Gradbach Mill youth hostel.
From: 'Alstonefield: Quarnford', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 7: Leek and the Moorlands (1996), pp. 49-56. (
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