THE remains of what archaeologists believe is a 16th century water mill have been discovered in North Yorkshire.

Volunteers working on the Lime and Ice Project in the North York Moors National Park unearthed the remnants of a complex of buildings, including a large millstone, as well as the outlines of watercourses which may have served the mill at Yearsley Moor, near Helmsley.

They also found pottery fragments, bones and coins. Archaeological records and ordnance survey maps hold little evidence of the mill, but volunteer Geoff Snowden said: “Perhaps this is not so surprising as some of the later fragments of pottery recovered from the site suggest the mill went out of use in the mid-18th century.

“Scant documentary evidence does show, however, that a mill was sold by a William Wyldon of Yearsley to the Fairfaxes of Gilling in 1560. In 1720, an entry in a registry of Papist estates reports a mill was still in Fairfax hands, but unfortunately neither reference gives an indication of the location of the mill.”

The Yearsley Moor Archaeological Project and apprentices from the national park have been working on the moors for three years. The Lime and Ice Project, funded by a £500,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant, will run into 2013.