Save The Dam Mill Pond Group
The Save the Dam Mill Pond Group is made up of volunteers who are committed to preserving and maintaining Millbrook’s dam, Needler’s Mill and the associated millpond – linked assets that reflect the area’s history and enhance its future. The Group operates as a committee (Mill Committee) of the Millbrook & Cavan Historical Society. It maintained a separate website during the campaign to save Needler’s Mill, a record of which is preserved here. It also maintains a separate Facebook page.
Save Needler’s Mill
The Millbrook & Cavan Historical Society has stepped up to save Needler's Mill from demolition!
In 2015 we raised enough money to move the Mill onto a new foundation beside its current location.
Thanks to our generous supporters, we have been able to keep the Mill in Millbrook!
Since Millbrook’s founding in 1820, there has been a mill at the centre of town – the heart and economic driver for this community.
Needler's Mill represents our history. Let's work together to keep it in our future.
Needler’s Mill
History
John and James Deyell built the first mill on this site in the early 1820s. It milled fine flour, cracked wheat and feed for livestock. In the next decades there were as many as nine mills in Millbrook alone and thirty throughout the township.
The Deyells sold the property in 1857 to the Needler family, who also owned the Cedar Valley Mill downstream.
When their Millbrook mill was destroyed by fire in 1909, they brought part of their Cedar Valley mill, which had been built by Adam Scott in 1830, to the Millbrook site, where it still stands today.
Future
There is a future for Needler’s Mill and it starts now! In May of 2015, an Unsafe Building Order was placed on the Mill. Otonabee Conservation, then owner of the mill, was no longer interested in retaining heritage mills within its jurisdiction. They announced their
intention to have the mill demolished by October of 2015 if there were no buyers found.
The Millbrook & Cavan Historical Society stepped up to the plate and made an offer to purchase the Mill. The first step was to address the Unsafe Building Order. We expect the Mill to be on its new foundation by the summer of 2016.
Donate
In 2015 we raised enough money to cover the costs of meeting the Unsafe Building Order and moving the Mill onto its new foundation.
We are still accepting donations towards the exterior refurbishment of the Mill once its in its new location.
Please see our donations page to find out how you can help keep the Mill in Millbrook.
Get Invovled
Pass the word! If you share our passion for Needler’s Mill, share that passion with others. In this community that values its heritage so highly – where there are the most properties designated as being of historical interest per capita in Ontario – we see the mill as a vital heritage feature.
Please visit our stories page and help us keep the stories coming! Send us yours, and be a part of this one.
See below for our Facebook page and email list to stay up to date!