VOLUNTEERS hope to bring an often overlooked piece of Blenheim Palace’s history out of the shadows.

Combe Mill is just a mile from the palace but the volunteers who lovingly care for it say it is often passed over by tourists who head straight for the main attraction.

The Victorian water- and steam-powered sawmill once turned the lathes, powered the saws and sharpened the tools used to maintain the grand stately home.

Without the skills of its blacksmiths, engine drivers, and carpenters, there would have been no timber to furnish it and no ornamental ironwork to decorate it.

Now Tony Simmons, chairman of the Combe Mill Society that keeps the mill running, hopes its current series of steam days will help attract new volunteers and visitors.

The former automation engineer, 73, of nearby Stonesfield, said: “We want people to come and discover us for themselves because everybody who comes here asks why they haven’t heard of us before.

“Despite all our efforts it doesn’t seem to have got out there that we’re here and we need more volunteers to help run the mill.”

The Combe Mill Society had to fight hard to keep the mill when the palace unveiled plans to turn the rest of the industrial yard that surrounds it into offices.

But in 2009 the palace finally granted the mill a 30-year lease.

The mill has a collection of diaries and papers that shed light on some of the 10,000 labourers who worked there and on the rest of the Blenheim estate.

They include men such as Edward Nash, clerk of works, who lived at the mill and did all the paperwork, James Coombes who was a carpenter and died at age 88 in 1828 and John Smart, an engine driver who ran the steam engines to power the machinery.

Mr Simmons said volunteers preserve ancient skills such as blacksmithing and wood turning but more are needed.

He added: “Our ideal volunteer is someone newly retired who hasn’t yet discovered sailing or golf.

“For anyone interested in social or industrial history or wildlife and for anyone looking to meet people it’s ideal.”

On the steam days, the engines are fired up and visitors can see the old machinery creaking back into life.

The next one will be on September 20 on the theme of country crafts and on October 18 there will be a day on woodcrafts with carpenters showing age-old skills.

Visit combemill.org