Cool Places
Town Mill, Lyme Regis
Town Mill, Mill Lane, Lyme Regis DT7 3PU
Tucked away off Coombe Street, Town Mill is a working watermill complex dating from 1340, and now housing art galleries, craft shops, a pottery, a micro-brewery, a cheesemonger and a great café. The mill itself is worth looking round: it’s powered by a giant waterwheel, which produces hydroelectricity (some of which is sold back to the National Grid) and also turns the grinding stones to make the organic flour sold in the mill’s shop. Outside the mill, check out the series of workshops and galleries set around the cobbled courtyard, where you can watch potters at work, sample local cheeses, and see local beer being made – to sample the brew, head to the bar of the Red Lion hotel in the High Street, which serves it from the cask.
