Yateley Mill once stood on the banks of the River Blackwater, which divides Hampshire from Berkshire. It had been a working corn mill until the sale of the Yateley Manor Estate in 1887 of which the mill was a part. The first house you pass in this area is Mill Cottage, which is about two or three hundred years old, but has recently been lavishly extended.

Closer to the river was a mill house where a large half-timbered house built in 1998 now stands. The building it replaced was a white cottage known as Mill Farm dating from the 19th century, but there must have been earlier houses as Yateley Mill is referred to in a rental of 1351.

In "Today and Yesterday - A Walk in Yateley" we can read of A C Benson who, as a boy in the 1870's, would walk from Wellington College to Yateley later remembering that the mill had "a magical charm".

Some Yateley people remember bathing in the stream before the river grew wider and shallower in the mid-twentieth century. An erosion of the banks allowed Hampshire cows to wade across to Berkshire until the sides were reinforced.

Although only 5 minutes from the A30 at Yateley, tall, showy, pink and white flowers grow abundantly in late summer. The Himalayan Balsam or "Policeman's Helmet" thrives in the unspoilt ditches along the river.