Green Elephant co-operative.

I first came to Halton Mill in 2017 to use the Hive coworking space shortly after my first son was born (mainly for my own sanity) and I haven't looked back since. I now run my creative studio Lunebase from one of the office spaces overlooking the River Lune. The Mill has an unrivalled community of friendly people, doing interesting things, in a very unique building.

As a Director of the Mill, I love to get my hands dirty and help with all things design where possible. The brochure design, the website, the interactive 360 tour are all things I've helped bring to life.

Outside the Mill, you can find me playing 7-a-side football, learning to ride a surfskate or spending time with my two young sons.

I am a BAFTA winning journalist and producer/director with 20 years experience in television current affairs, documentary and factual programming. I then spent seven years as a Director of Communications in the NHS and higher education.

I moved from London to Lancaster by narrowboat in 2012 to join Lancaster Cohousing and quickly became involved in getting Halton Mill up and running. I’m constantly excited by the possibilities it offers to be a hub of creativity and enterprise, as well as being a good fun place to work.

I am a holistic psychotherapist, yoga teacher and breathwork facilitator under my business Neat Wellbeing. I have been involved in Halton Mill since it opened using the space for events, workshops and classes. My business is now based at Halton Mill as I run the River Room, yoga and wellbeing studio. The River Room is a spacious community studio which hosts a variety of classes, workshops, retreats and one to one clients.

Outside of work I love roaming around in my camper van and can often be found in the hills, cold water swimming or simply hanging out with my family!

I have been something of a serial co-operative entrepreneur over the years, Green Elephant will be something like the eighth co-operative venture I have been involved with setting up and running. More recently I have been a member of Welfare State International , a partner in Greenbuilt and a Green Party Councillor on Lancaster City and Lancashire County Council’s.

When asked the question “What do I do?” I always hesitate – before answering either ‘Carpenter turned construction project manager’ or ‘Making things happen, by whatever means necessary.’ Depending on who’s asking the question.

My company Mandy Blackwell Recruitment has been around since 2013. I feel so grateful to have found Halton Mill & have an office overlooking the beautiful river. It is my job to recruit talented people & connect them with great upcoming career opportunities in the local area. Halton Mill is therefore now at the heart of my business & an inspirational place to work & form long-lasting friendships.

Outside of Halton Mill, I take every opportunity to get out & about in my camper van. I also love riding my bike in the summer & spending quality time with family & friends.

I'm an award-winning Chartered Architect & Designer who along with my fellow Director Rebecca, run our own practice, Archihive Architects which is based at Halton Mill. We first joined the community at the Mill in January 2021 as members of the Hive co-working space & realised how much we wanted to be more involved as part of the Mill's creative community.

Passionate about modern, contemporary & sustainable design, with expertise & a background in heritage & adapting existing buildings to meet modern needs, the opportunity to work at the Mill was an exciting opportunity in the development of Archihive. As a director of the Mill, my hope is to help nurture the Mill for future generations & look to see what we can do to help sustain this local heritage asset & creative business hub into the future for the local community.

Outside of the Mill, I'm also a lecturer and tutor of Architecture, Design and Technology at Lancaster University. I enjoy spending time with my family at home cooking with Rebecca and gaming with our boys, I also enjoy walking and cycling.