The Batman Mill in Sheguiandah gets a facelift with major work still to do

Announcement

News

The Batman Mill in Sheguiandah gets a facelift with major work still to do

Tom Batman and Gertrude Aelick-Cooper are restoring the historic Batman Mill in Sheguiandah, preserving a vital local landmark and family legacy that drew over 4,000 visitors last year.

Margery Frisch

Aug 15, 2026 - 4 min read

The refurbished Batman Mill in Sheguiandah is one of the most picturesque icons in Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands. Tom Batman and his small but mighty crew of helpers have managed to get most of the damage from this spring’s floods dealt with, but more remains to be done.

The Batman Mill in Sheguiandah gets a facelift with major work still to do — The refurbished Batman Mill in Sheguiandah is one of the most picturesque icons in Northeastern Manitoulin and the Islands. Tom Batman and his small but mighty crew of helpers have managed to get most of the damage from this spring’s floods dealt with, but more remains to be done.

SHEGUIANDAH—Sitting down to speak with Tom Batman and his cousin Gertrude Aelick-Cooper about the work being done at the old Batman Mill in Sheguiandah, turns out to be as much a history lesson as an update on the mill. On Facebook, Mr. Batman has been keeping everyone posted on the upkeep, the upgrading, the painting and the cleaning up of debris at the mill, but sitting down with the Expositor, he wanted to provide some historical background.

“It’s not actually the original mill,” he explained, “the building was massive, this is just a small replica. We had an entrepreneur here by the name of George Bishop, and he was a wonderful person in the community. He had visions like this, and back in the mid-1970s, there was a lot of make-work projects for young guys that didn’t know what they wanted to do yet with their life, and George got this idea to rebuild the mill on a much smaller scale, and they even made the wheel at that time. It was a huge, very heavy wheel, and they had the davits, they had the second dam, it was wonderful, and in 1998, the ice from Bass Lake took everything out, took everything but the mill, just the building was left.”