CCAD alumni and product designer Jonny Muir is currently developing High Mill to become an affordable creative community hub for artists, designers and practitioners in Alston. Jonny recently connected with his retired Northern Art & CCAD 3D Design Diploma and HND in Product & Spatial Design lecturer Martyn Featherstone to show him around his latest project. Speaking of the project Martyn said he “invited me to Alston where he is instigating an incredibly large project. He has bought the High Mill in the centre of Alston (behind the Co-Op) and along with the mill came an adjoining large factory.”

Jonny Muir, originally from Sedgefield, is the man behind Bucolic Products & Design a furniture maker and designer with a strong community interest and an ambition to in-still sustainable design into his practice, “During the vast majority of furniture recycling, the materials are broken down or burned. The time, work and resources that went into creating that initial piece of furniture are lost. Now don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a place for recycling, however, it should not be the first resort. We salvage skip-bound materials and pieces of furniture in any condition to revamp, reclaim and reuse as much as possible before finally recycling what is left. We repair, modernise, reclaim and we reuse all that we can.”

Speaking of what prompted the development Jonny said “I needed a workshop to call my own with potential to grow a community.” Working in rented property with a landscape artist and blacksmith in Middleton on Teasdale Johnny really valued having creative minds on his doorstep, “we tied together quite nicely. I thought lets set up a CIC and get our own place to grow this artist community. At the time they said that would be brilliant but let us know when you’ve done it. I thought alright I don’t mind taking that on, but I wasn’t living in the area, a lot of the places there a privately owned and cost half a million for a shed, so it came to a point that no where round there was feasible. However where I live near in Alston theres a lot more opportunity, by that point I wanted a place for myself and if I have more space I can grow it.”

And fortune came knocking in the form of High Mill, the property had been bought at auction by a man named Ian Grey, “Ian had been looking for the last 8 years for something useful to do with the place approaching councils all sorts of things. Nothing was happening, it just so happened I was looking for a place and we had a conversation about what I wanted to do. As I was walking around I was thinking this place is massive I’m never going to be able to afford this, I didn’t want to waste his time, but after I told him my idea, he offered it to me for 50K which was affordable but there is a hell of a lot of work to do.”

“The location is fantastic it’s set back enough but in the heart of the town, which is a nice location for artists and crafts people. We have around 15 rooms around 90% of which are taken up already by print makers, potters, knitters, all forms of artists and landscape artists and textiles artists, myself Bucolic Products, blacks smiths and farriers. We’ve got The Mens Shed which is a community group, they run a workshop, a group of older gents that all come together twice or three times a week and make or fix things. There is a fairly strong team, working on everything from electrics to furniture making. I’m going to be putting them next to me.”

Speaking of the area Jonny commented “Alston, once the mine had closed became quite a big hippy commune and the artistry and creativity that developed during that time then is still very much in the community. Loads of people where looking for a space and it’s all worked out quite nicely.”

The development of the building is very much infused with his own creative ethos which has a sustainability and community at it’s core. Many of the materials in the building have been brought back to life in the renovation; “we needed a whole new roof on the factory, we needed whole new beams and they would have cost 1.5 k per beam, we needed 30 and I was thinking I reckon I can make these. So I made one and had building regs come out and inspect and sign it off and so i’ve made them, it’s now cost around 2k for all of them. Things like that we’ve saved a fortune going about things another way and I’ve probably learnt that from going to the college, having those skills to be able to pick apart my own ideas. We’ve salvaged a lot of stuff from the building itself to be used again now.”

Time has been put in from future space holders, family and friends to get building under-way, “Men’s Shed have done a few hours, we have a little volunteer force that comes in, a lot of family, my dad and uncle are in there most days. Yeah, myself i’ve been plodding along with it everyday we have pretty much done everything ourselves.”

The Mill whilst not fully finished yet is the new home of Jonny’s brand Bucolic Products, “We are in there at the moment trading from underneath the tarpaulin, Men’s Shed will hopefully be in the beginning of next year. The rest of it i’d hope a good portion if not everything will be ready by the end of next year and hopefully we will be starting on the mill, for that we need the listed building paperwork to come through. I would say in the next five years everything open and thriving, hopefully.”

Speaking of his time at college and how it has impacted his life, Jonny was very complimentary of his tutors Martyn, Neil and Richard and the attention he was able to get during his study hours “It was a small course and it was almost like one on one tutoring. I got to know them really well and I learnt a lot out of lessons too, going to the workshop at lunch and getting inducted on all of the machines, the HND was absolutely phenomenal education. I knew the tutors where great, I learnt a hell of a lot, what I learnt from the course the most was pushing ideas and just learning how to analyse and fix a problem both creatively and in life. Being tutored to understand a process of forming a workable idea is something that I have definitely carried with me.”

Speaking of the project his old lecturer Martyn commented, “The factory was originally a foundry and Johnny has inherited hundreds of sand casting blocks which he intends to use as wall art. It was the first foundry to produce golf club irons, it also produced parts for Lancaster bombers during WW2 and there is still graffiti dated during the 1940’s on a header above some shelving along with photos of aircraft. Another family member is transforming part of the building into a cafe with display areas.”

He continued, “The most impressive element is the mill wheel which is still in situ and will make an impressive feature for visitors to see! He has some exciting ideas in mind for power which include solar panels and hydro power from the fast flowing mill race which still exists. He is currently making the roof of the factory waterproof! I am sure you will join me in wishing Johnny good luck with this exciting and challenging project.”

Good luck Jonny! You can keep up to date on Bucolic Products here to follow the development of High Mill follow @creators_cortex on Instagram. If you are interested in studying 3D at college level we offer a UAL Extended Diploma in 3D Design (Interiors, Architecture & Productions, find out more here.