The river and the land around the mill are the natural habitat for many plants and animals. Even at the busiest times of the summer, visitors are likely to see many insects such as dragonflies, butterflies and the unusual Banded Demoiselle near the riverside.

Some parts of the river are so clear and shallow that you can see the fish swimming beneath the water. Lucky visitors may even see the herons and kingfishers that come to catch the fish. In the early summer grey wagtails nest near the building and it is possible to watch their airborne acrobatics from the little balcony at the tail-race end of the mill. All year round, people bring bread to feed the ducks and swans who are always somewhere close by the mill.

At night inside the mill itself, in the upper floors not accessible to the public, brown long-eared bats hunt butterflies and moths. We often find the partially eaten butterfly wings on the floors whilst vacuuming. It is very likely that the mill and its surroundings are used by other species of bats, but we will not know for certain until the bat detection survey is completed later this year.

Down the river bank, past the tea-room, is an area that is kept fairly wild to provide better habitat for wildlife. The grass is kept long and is full of wild plants that attract insects. The undergrowth also provides cover for mice and voles. They are hunted at night by the owls, which perch in the branches of the willows above.

The older willow trees sometimes have impressive bracket fungi growing on them in the autumn, such as the ‘Chicken of the Woods’. If a tree has to be felled because it is badly damaged, for example in a gale, then it may be left on the ground to rot naturally, as even dead trees provide a habitat for some beetle species.

A Wildlife Spotters Sheet to record the wildlife seen on a visit is available for our younger visitors to download. This sheet is also available from reception.