This tour followed last year`s talk about the history of the corn mill. A group of us braved the rain and wind to meet near its site. We trekked up the beck which never runs dry, therefore enabling the mill to have been in constant use. Margaret Brown, our guide, pointed out where the stream fed into the mill race and into the mill pond which has now been converted into a playground. She showed us the perfectly formed Georgian bridge which years ago had stirred the local history group`s curiosity and started their journey into uncovering the corn mill`s history.

A welcome drink and biscuits awaited us in The Earby Youth Hostel whose back garden was the original site of the corn mill. We were given a potted history and invited to look around the building. The Hostel has a long record as a refuge for socialists from the nineteen twenties to the nineteen fifties. The renowned socialist, Katherine Glasier, moved into one of the cottages and after her death her friends started a memorial fund which raised enough money to turn the cottages into a hostel. A plaque on the outside wall charts her fascination life and works.