May day is celebrated every year with traditional May Pole dancing and the crowning of the 'May Queen' on the village green.
Today the mill houses the most powerful working waterwheel in Europe, an iron wheel moved from Glasshouses Mill at Pateley Bridge designed by Sir William Fairbairn who had been Hewes' apprentice.
Within the glasshouses tropical rainforest flora, desert plants and species from the Mediterranean are on show as well as tropical insects such as stick insects, scorpiones, butterflies and tarantulas.
The whole façade system was conceived through the analysis of exposure and solar radiation and integrated with three glasshouses on the eastern side incorporating vertically moving curtains.
There were 56 glasshouses owned by the Co-operative Society; the girls grew tomatoes, controlled the rats, and were billeted in Darlington.