Mill of Secrets

Simon and Amanda's holiday in Kent with their Aunt Jo becomes a thrilling adventure when they make a startling discovery in an old barn. They are digging for the remains of a 17th century watermill, but find more than they bargained for. (TV Times June 5th 1960). 

Written by Peter Johnson and Diana K. Watson Mill of Secrets was a Sunday afternoon children's drama series that followed the adventures of Simon (David Langford) and Amanda (Jeanette Bradbury) on holiday with their historically-minded Aunt Joanna (Gene Anderson) and Claude "Snow" Nolan, an Australian boy played by Sean Scully. The old barn is up for auction and zoo manager Tom Briereley (Ken Watson) wants to purchase it to extend his nearby children's zoo. But he has a rival, the mysterious and slightly sinister Douglas Wallace (Glyn Houston). But the stakes become higher after the children and their aunt begin to unearth some startling discoveries that lead to traces of an old mill, its mechanism, and with it buried artefacts that trace back to the Domesday Book. 

Four of the cast-Anderson, Watson, Langford and Bradbury, had leading parts in Formula for Danger, the children's serial that had occupied the same time slot earlier in the year. Anderson was the least recognisable. "All through Formula for Danger I was a Central European school mistress with an accent to match," she said. 12 year-old Sean Scully was making his television debut only a few months after arriving from his native Australia. Interviewed at the time he joked that he planned to retire after "one big success over here" until he was grown up! When he did grow up he returned to Australia and appeared in Sons and Daughters and Neighbours.