Al fresco dining comes to Farsley's Sunny Bank Mills after £100,000 investment

More than £100,000 has been invested in the area outside the historic Old Combing building enabling Mill Kitchen and Grumpy’s to offer an atmospheric continental-style eating area to their customers.

An attractive pedestrianized area now leads to the heart of the mill, where Yorkshire Television’s Emmerdale and Heartbeat were filmed. The works is expected to be completed by Christmas.

This investment by Edwin Woodhouse and Co Ltd, the owners of Sunny Banks Mills, follows hard on the heels of the regeneration of the historic Old Combing, which has allowed both the Mill Kitchen and Grumpy’s to expand within the building.

John Gaunt, co-managing director of Edwin Woodhouse, said: “The Mill Kitchen and Grumpy’s have proved a tremendously popular members of our Sunny

Bank Mills community in recent years. We are delighted to help them build on the success they have already achieved.

“Indeed the Mill Kitchen hit the national headlines last month when it hosted Emma Barnett’s Election Show on Radio Five. Emma was impressed by the Mill Kitchen, and indeed by Sunny Bank Mills itself, and we were delighted to show her around.”

William Gaunt, co-managing director, added: “One of the key aspects of our strategy at Sunny Bank Mills is to help our tenants if we possibly can. The regeneration of the Old Combing building, together with the creating of an outdoor eating area, has allowed us to do exactly that.

“We look forward to the Mill Kitchen and Grumpy’s going from strength to strength. That’s not just good news for everyone who works here, but for Farsley as a whole.”

Many original features of the Old Combing building, where the mill used to comb the wool tops prior to spinning the worsted yarn used in the weaving of some of the finest

worsted cloth in the world, have been kept, and these are complemented by recycled and reclaimed furniture.

The investment in the Old Combing has taken place alongside a much wider regeneration of the mill complex.

At the moment work is currently underway on a £2 million project called Weaver’s Yard, which will transform the mill.

The central part of the flourishing estate is being re-modelled to create open spaces and to re-establish the prominence of historic mill buildings.

There are now 70 companies, and more than 355 people employed at Sunny Bank Mills.