MillCon 5
To summarise:
- The main part of the Mill House is 150 years old this year.
- Our guests missed out on being in-person UK FilkCon guests in 2021.
So! MillCon 5 will be happening!!! Here are the details:
Dates
Friday to Sunday 28th-30th August 2026. That's the Bank Holiday weekend.
We intend to do stuff through into Sunday evening, and have ourselves the Monday for other things (like recovering and tidying up after you lot :D).
Important
Some things on this page may have changed from last year. Please take note and read it all.Attending?
If you would like to come (or watch online) please fill out this form.
Programming and Guests
Guest of Honour
Our guests of honour are Leslie Hudson and Chris O'Shea.
Leslie is making their visit part of a larger visit to Europe. While we as a con don't have the budget to bring them over ourselves, much as we'd love to, we are very keen to promote their fundraisers for the trip, specifically:
If you feel you can donate (or buy!) we're sure Leslie would be very grateful
Also note, Leslie's pronouns are they/them.
Programming
Still TBFinalised. But fill in the form and let us know what you can bring!Location
The Mill House, 1379 Lincoln Road, Werrington, Peterborough PE4 6LT
Please come round to the back door (down Sharma Leas and across the back of the house) and let yourselves in: odds are we won't hear the front doorbell.
Venue Details
We have three 'function' rooms available:
- The Lounge - Sofas, chairs, space to natter for ten or a dozen. PS5, TV, cats.
- The Music Room - Seats about 25-30 at a pinch for concerts or a filk circle. This room will very likely be live streamed for concerts.
- The Studio - Outside in the workshop wing. Depending on numbers, we may use this for overflow music (again, seats about 20), or just make it available for folks who want to play board games. There's a TV here, so we may stream the Music Room to it (as well as the Lounge).
In addition we have
- The Kitchen, which tends to turn into a place for a few folks to hang out (but expect to be shooed out if you're in the boss' way)
- The Dining Room where the food ends up.
- Also, Mike and DaveH's fiendish plan from last year of unlockng the dining room door to outside and erecting The Gazebo (AC -10, HP 20,000)1 on the lawn may potentially come to fruition.
Accessibility
Sadly, not very. The Mill House dates from 1860-odd, has very steep stairs, low doorways and no two rooms are quite on the same level.
WiFi
Yes. With better bandwidth and more IP addresses than most hotels!
Potential Hazards
We have three five six cats and several Amazon Echos. We apologise if you are allergic to the
former: we will keep the Studio cat-free but cannot guarantee the rest of the house.
Bits of the house date from the 1860s, and most of the rest from 1876 - as such no two adjacent rooms are quite on the same level, and a number of the connecting doorways are lower than tall people's heads.
Accomodation
There will be no spare beds at the Mill House, sadly: we're using up all the available for either event space or hiding stuff away. There are some local fen who may be able to offer bed space, but if not...
Hotel
The Premier Inn, Peterborough North, is just over a mile away - 5 mins drive or 20-25 mins walk. Currently their prices are surprisingly reasonable (about £183 refundable up to 28 days before for a double for the whole weekend): their group booking deal turns out to be worse than this, for some bizarre reason. The hotel is disability-friendly and has free parking. We hope that folks will be able to arrange car-pooling to and from the hotel, and will run an (electric) shuttle in the event that doesn't work out for anyone. Please note, the decent rate is no longer on 3 days cancellation!
Both the Mill House and the hotel are on the number 1 bus route from the station. Note that on a northbound bus you either have to get off by the church and walk half a mile, or stay on for another 10 mins and go round the loop and back down Lincoln Road (as a southbound bus) to get to us. The southbound stop (Werrington Mill) is literally outside our front door.
Taxis need to be told "Werrington Mill on Lincoln Road".
Folks have stayed in The Premier Inn, Peterborough Central before now. Current all weekend rate is £236 with 28 day cancellation.
There a few AirBnB's within range.
Food
Overcaterers Anonymous will be in operation. Please drop Mike a DM or email if you wish to be added to the appropriate WhatsApp group.
If you have complex dietary restrictions, there will be space on the form for you to let us know: if you are able to contribute you-suitable food to ease the stress on the head chef, she will love you to bits.
Friday Evening
There will food for the Friday arrivals.Breakfast - Sat and Sun
You're on your own :D
Daytime food - Sat and Sun
We'll lay on snacks, bread, cheese, other fillings, tea, coffee, soft drinks etc during the day for folks to graze on as and when.
Evening - Sat
Plans will depend on numbers: we may do the worlds' largest spag bol in carnivorous and vegetarian versions, or we may scare the living daylights out of an Uber Eats or Deliveroo driver or two, but watch this space.
Evening - Sun
There is (as of 2024) an Official Tradition of placing a very large order with the local Chinese takeaway during the weekend. However, we are moving it from the Friday to the Sunday, simply because by then Anne really won't want to cook yet again :D
Membership
We would appreciate a donation of £5 for Saturday, £5 for Sunday (pay us on the day), purely to cover shopping for food, drinks etc and the works of Overcaterers Anonymous. If you're staying for the Chinese on Sunday, everyone will be paying for their own.
Our rough estimate is we can probably host 30-40 people without creaking at the seams.
COVID
If you are displaying symptoms of anything flu-, cold- or COVID-like, we would ask you not to attend.
Parking
No parking on the Mill House 'car park' down Sharma Leas unless we have given you explicit permission - please park on Lincoln Road or Salisbury Road.
1: Hey, we're old school AD&D - none of this 5E nonsense :D