Docton Mill

Lower down, by the old orchard, the only dry area of the valley, there are a mixture of shrubs and perennials on a predominantly gold and burgundy theme, in echo of the colour of the moorland hills, richly coated in heather and gorse.

From 2002 visitors to the garden will be provided with a guide to the magnolia collection which was planted in Autumn 1999, as a memorial to Iris Pugh, the original creator of the garden. The collection is centred on a sheltered, one acre lawn, tilled in Iris' time over the former miller's donkey paddock (Caleb's field). The 'Docton Mill' magnolias have potential to grow into great, long-lived trees, to see out the 21st century. They originated exclusively from Burncoose Nurseries, near Redruth, Cornwall, and include many famous varieties.

Situated only 1,400 yards from the famous Spekes Mill Mouth Coastal Waterfall, the garden at Docton Mill was created in 1980 around the existing river, waterways, leats and ponds. Docton Mill and its adjoining leat, head wier and tailrace, have been traced back to Saxon times, probably before the Norman conquest.

The mill stopped working in 1910, simply because it ran out of business. Its last big customer, so far known, was Gifford the Baker, still in business today at Hartland.

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