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If you haven’t been following us on social media, then we’ll save you a few clicks: spirits at Manor Mill have been awakened, and we’ve been learning a lot about them in the past week.

You see, Jacob Bull, the gentleman who built the original Manor Mill around 1742, hired the first miller, an unlikely Frenchman named Gris Tomas Mille (first name pronounced "Gree" though his friends called him "Gray". The irony of his surname also did not escape us -- we think that Gris later changed his last name to just “Mill” possibly for cultural assimilation as his career blossomed), who arrived by boat sometime in the early 1700s with his wife Fleur.

We were saddened -- though not surprised -- to learn that Gris apparently lost his arm one day in the middle of a beautiful October day, after a mechanical failure caused by a slipped axle tied directly to the 28' overshot water wheel. Apparently the wheel was spinning so fast, as Fleur described in a newly discovered diary, that the paddles were just a blur.

Who knows how fast this axle and gear system was spinning when Gris Tomas Mille lost his arm in the late 1700s.

Legend has it that because Gris was such a loyal, hard-working man of unconditional faith in both the spiritual and eternal nature of water, his lost arm never died, and in fact came to help him and his wife in countless ways.

Ever since we learned all of this, the spiritual accidents known as “coincidences” have been piling up. To name a few: we titled our first art opening “Awakenings”. Why? Well, because after the years cleaning up the mill, we felt like the building had “woken up” from being buried in a morase of grime and mold, but now it seems as if the Miller’s invisible hand had guided us toward the name, knowing who was coming.

Second, just last week we uncovered two millstones half sunk into the ground and largely disguised by many summers of overgrowth, nothing less than a symbolic arrival of our miller and his wife.

A millstone, sunken into the ground behind the Miller’s house, just after we pulled away years of dead weeds and growth.

Finally, the gravestones, uncovered along the perimeter of a recent clearing made for drain fields this past summer, could have been easily missed as some forgotten stumps. Not so! We’ve re-positioned them and tried to clear up the crude etching of the dates (Gris died in 1792, Fleur in 1802).

So now what?
How does one embrace rather than avoid centuries-old spirits who for two weeks out of the year roam a historic building … and should we be afraid?

Captured on a wildlife camera, we’re feeling a little perturbed by what is coming out of the tailrace. The Haunted Flashlight Tour will give you a chance to see for yourself.

To the first question, we have many ideas. In short, we commemorate. Through Fleur’s prolific diaries that we found in the basement, we know that when the couple wasn’t working hard in the mill, they threw parties. And Gris, as it turns out, was a master whittler, which during the fall season applied to pumpkins. And so, Sip N’ Carve this past Friday was as much a chance to learn from local artists on carving as it was to fist bump our resident ghosts.

Ok, this is just a spooky decoration, not Gris himself! Nonetheless, this is what a few of us thought we’d see after uncovering his gravestone last week…

Second, we visit with them. A haunted tour for adults only (this is *not* for the faint of heart) Friday night, October 29.

Third, we celebrate. “All Hallow’s Evening” (as it was referred in the 1700s) was much more about remembering the dead than dressing up, a Celtic tradition that surely Gris’s cousin Deirdre, from Ireland, would have known well. Nevertheless, we will enjoy two days of scarecrows, voodoo dolls, “daylight” tours, a scavenger hunt and more, providing several opportunities to pay our respects before Gris and Fleur disappear. Let’s just hope we don’t make them mad!

Ready to meet the spirits?

Jazz Improv - Today @ 2:00 pm! Our ghosts love music, so keep them happy with other musicians!

Haunted Flashlight Tour: $15, 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM Friday night, October 29

Afternoons of Halloween fun: $20 (Kid friendly!) in the Haunted Mill, 12:00-3:00 PM and 3:00-6:00 PM, Saturday October 30 and Sunday, October 31.

Want to connect your body and spirit at the same time? Yoga’s your best bet:

Community and Sunset Yoga
THIS Friday, October 29 at 5:15 PM
Community yoga and fire meditation

Saturday at 7:45 AM
Mixed level drop-in yoga, Mixed level 5-class pass

Note: This Thursday night’s class has been canceled for a private event.

Yoga classes will be outdoors, either on the grass or in the covered open-aired-loft featured above. During colder weather, yoga will be held on the third floor with masks required.

The outdoor covered loft is for yoga and other classes, but this weekend it’ll be filled with scarecrows, voodoo dolls, pumpkins and more — come see for yourself!

COVID Protocol
So that you can safely enjoy hands-on experiences from local experts, classes are small, allowing appropriate space between students and are held either in a covered outdoor barn or indoors where masks are required.

Instagram: @manormillmonkton
Facebook: @manormill

Fall 2021, Haunted Edition