Environment and Nature Reserve:

The Mill Retreat Centre is located in a spectacular setting with over 30 acres of grounds. These include a 10 acre lake with stunning wetlands habitat and over a mile of riverbanks, perfect for relaxing walks and wildlife spotting. With a 6 acre poplar wood plantation and a wide variety of native plants and trees, the grounds of the Mill are a paradise for a huge variety of creatures from wild boar and deer to water mammals such as otters and over 40 species of birds.

In 2008, 5 acres of the grounds were dedicated as a nature reserve to aid in vital conservation work, helping to ensure the continued survival and protection of many local species.

The Mill Retreat Centre was discovered by Kolinka Zinovieff in 2007. Much of the grounds looked like a one hundred year old thicket from a fairy tale and was totally impenetrable but despite being very run down and delapidated it was brimming with possibility and clearly had the potential to be a beautiful retreat centre.

Originally built in 1846 as a Camembert cheese factory it used the river ‘Bresle’ to power the cheese mixing process with an old hydro turbine located underneath the Mill. We are in the process of renovating this old 1880 turbine which has an extremely unusual and rare design. It has a vertical axis and the turbine wheel is permanently underwater so it cannot be seen, even when it is in action. Even though it was built 130 years ago it is nearly as efficient as a modern design, an extraordinary feat of the European industrial revolution and we are currently in the process of setting up hydro electricity utilizing the original Mill works.