I often think we are lucky living in East Anglia, with so many walks in such a diverse landscape we are never far from walks that pass by buildings and countryside that can lift the spirit. Take for instance the Ouse valley near Huntingdon and St Ives, as cars thunder past on the A14 heading East to the coast or West to the Midlands how many of the drivers and passengers are aware sandwiched between the A14 and the A1123 are the villages of Houghton and Wyton, I am also guilty of passing by, but this weekend decided to stop and visit and found a hidden gem, Hougton Mill, the Mill is the oldest working mill on the river Great Ouse.

A mill has stood on this site for over 1000 years, nearly completely demolished once but restored by villagers it has evolved to this fantastic building we see today. The first building that stood here was built in 969 AD and various buildings had stood on the site over the years, owned by monks, the crown after the  dissolution of the monasteries and then in nineteenth century a Quaker Potto Brown, who done a lot for the mill and the villagers, a Bronze Bust of him stands in the village today. Potto Brown extended the present mill which was built in the 1600s and was working up to the 1930s.

When the mill was decommissioned local residents purchased the mill and gave it to the National Trust, after the second world war it became a Youth Hostel. Today the National Trust opens the mill as a tourist attraction and still mills flour here after installation of new  millstones in the 1990s, you can no longer stay here as a Youth Hostel but there is a campsite next to the mill.

From the mill there are a number of walks by the Great Ouse, we went East towards St Ives, first crossing a stream to walk along the river side.

On this last weekend of August there were lots of dragonflies and birds along the river as well as other walkers enjoying the blue skies and warmth of a Summer day in this hidden gem of East Anglian countryside another image to capture in the mind for reflection to think about on a grey and damp Bank holiday Monday to come.