December 19, 2026
A corn mill of 1846 on the River Wye, a hall under its beams, and one evening to taste your wedding before you plan it.
Reserve your placeAshford Mill · Mill Lane, Ashford-in-the-Water, Bakewell DE45 1QB, England
Ashford Mill ground corn on the Wye for a hundred years and then stood silent for fifty. Restored stone by stone, it is now a kitchen and a hall: one hundred and sixty seated under the old beams, a loggia of stone arches over the millrace, and a terrace where the wheel still turns.
Our open day is a dinner. The hall is laid three ways — long tables, round tables, one table for everyone — and you sit at one of them for four courses of the wedding menu, with wine poured by our sommelier. Taste it, change it, ask the chef: this is the evening to decide what your guests will eat.
17:00
A glass of English sparkling wine on the terrace, over the millrace.
Terrace
17:30
Long tables, round tables and one table for everyone — walk between them and choose.
The hall
18:30
The wedding menu, served exactly as it will be on the day.
The hall
20:00
A pairing for every course, and the wine for your toast.
The loggia
21:00
Dessert, coffee and your questions — and a first sketch of your own menu before you leave.
The hall
Every package includes the mill for the evening, our kitchen and front-of-house team, the furniture, linen, sound and light. What changes is how many sit down, and how much of the mill is yours.
from £95 / guest
Dinner at long tables in the hall, for up to one hundred and twenty guests.
from £125 / guest
The hall, the loggia and the terrace, with a ceremony by the wheel — up to two hundred and twenty guests.
on request
Forty guests at one table in the old milling room, a menu written for you, the chef cooking in sight.
The kitchen cooks from the Peak District: lamb from the hills, trout from the Wye, cheese from the dairies down the valley. This is the menu you will taste; yours will be written with you.
Two of the people who dress the tables and pour the wine at our weddings — on the open day they sit at the long table too.
Floristry
Table flowers, runners and candles — the long table dressed as it will be on the day, down to the place cards.
Catering
A merchant in the valley who chooses the pairings with our chef and pours them at the sommelier’s table.
Five places in the mill to find before dessert. Collect them all and the last one is worth something.
0/5 experiences collected
One hundred and sixty seated in the hall, two hundred and twenty with the loggia open. Forty at the chef’s table.
Every course. The tasting is a starting point: after the dinner the chef sits down with you and writes your menu, allergies and grandmothers included.
On the terrace by the wheel, yes, and in the loggia if the weather turns. The sound of the race is the only music you will not have to book.
In Bakewell, five minutes away, where we hold rooms at two inns; a minibus runs from the mill at the end of the night.
Yes — and a corner of the loggia with games, so the long table stays long.
Tell us the date you have in mind and we will answer within the day. Saturdays in September go first.
Two miles from Bakewell on the A6, an hour from Manchester and Sheffield. Cross the old packhorse bridge; parking is in the mill yard.
The open day is free, but the long table has an end. Leave your names and your date, and we will lay a place for you.
The doors open at five. Come hungry, bring your questions, and stay until the chef sits down with you.
