Millfield House

The area around Millfield House and Pets Corner was once an iron works known as Busy Cottages Iron Foundry. The works would have been filled with the noise of hammers, smoke and the smells of coal furnaces. The present Millfield House is over 150 years old.

The house is said to be haunted by the ghost of Elvira, a maid who was murdered in the house. A ghostly figure has been reported moving past windows on the top floor.

The building you see today was built on the site of Busy Cottages corn mill. The Mill was powered by water which turned a large wheel. This connected to machinery inside to rotate a millstone which ground wheat into flour. The small tunnel you see in the wall channelled water from a pond beyond the garden to the mill wheel. In 2010, another tunnel was discovered under Millfield House. This took water away from the mill down the river. Millfield House was bought buy Newcastle City Council in the 1980s and today forms a cafe, conference facility and visitors centre.