A working flour mill on the River Aire has been traced back to the Roman times and some dating from the twelfth century were producing flour on both sides of the river. During the mediaeval days the Crown owned the mills which were used primarily for the milling of wheat. The Queen’s mill was built on its present site in 1888. It was the world’s largest stone grinding flour mill with twenty pairs of grinding stones. The water wheel was twenty foot in diameter and piece of Victorian craftsmanship and design, it turned six mill stones using the water from the river Aire.   During the Second World War the milling operation was increased with the addition of another fourteen sets of electrically driven mill wheels, the external silo could hold some six hundred tons of wheat. It has continued producing flour until 2010.

Today the mill is owned by the Castleford Heritage Trust.