CELEBRITY comedian Griff Rhys Jones has taken a step back in time to capture life at a restored mill with a BBC film crew.

The TV star was visiting Gayle Mill, near Hawes, North Yorksire, to film an update for the BBC’s Restoration show, which featured the mill in 2004.

His visit was to catch up on what has been going on at the mill, built in 1784, in Wensleydale, since then.

Tony Routh, a director of the Gayle Mill Trust and the last person to be apprenticed at the mill in the Sixties, showed him round.

The TV star saw how the mill had stuck to using natural resources to operate.

Mill manager Paul Bisson said: “Much of the success of the project is down to our volunteers who give so freely of their time and skills.

“We were very pleased that some of the filming included shots of them working, finishing off a variety of the wooden products we sell, and we hope to attract more people to volunteer to be part of the Mill’s future.”

Rhys Jones was presented with an inscribed wooden platter made by William Lambert, chairman of the Gayle Mill Trust.

Part of the filming saw interviews with Ian Bruce, of the North of England Civic Trust, and David Butterworth, chief executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

Mr Butterworth said: “The restoration of the mill is one of the great success stories in the Yorkshire Dales.

“It combines the cultural and historical identity of the Dales with a forwardlooking approach to conservation and sustainability in this magnificent landscape.”

It is not yet known when the programme will be broadcast, but it is thought that it might be in the next few months.