ONE of the oldest working watermills in the UK hosted a festival to celebrate its grand reopening.

Heron Corn Mill, Beetham, gave visitors the opportunity to do activities from ferret racing to bird watching over the Easter weekend after receiving funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development to carry out much-needed refurbishments.

More than 600 people attended the event’s main attraction, a dramatic production by the local Ghostcog Company, depicting the death and re-birth of the now completely self-sufficient mill.