Twelve H.M.G members set out from Chandlers Ford on
a sunny Friday morning and travelled to the Midlands
for our Annual trip. Our first stop was Charlecote
Mill.
Charlecote is not a museum, occasionally grinding
flour as many water and windmills now are, but is a
piece of living working history and one of only a
small handful of surviving commercial working
watermills. Producing traditionally stone-ground
flours through French Burr Stones every weekday
(when the water levels allow). The mill is a
constant hive of activity but retains all the
atmosphere and charm of a mill run in Victorian
times.
We then moved on to The Forge Mill Needle Museum at
Redditch where we were given a tour of the 18th
century
needle scouring mill and although the workers, men,
women and children were relatively well paid, they
worked hard in poor conditions. They also had a very
short life expectancy due to dusty working
conditions and lack of safety equipment.
After tea and cake we then traveled on to Churchill
Forge water mill near Kidderminster. This water
mill was one of the last working water powered forge
mills in Britain, producing metal tools such as
spades, shovels and ladles until the early 1970s.
It lies in the valley of the Ganlow Brook which
rises in the Clent Hills in North Worcestershire,
and flows down to meet the River Stour, which itself
is a tributary of the Severn.
The power for the forge is provided by two water
wheels. The water to turn these wheels is stored in
"Hammer Pond" - a pool, some two acres in extent and
created by damming up Ganlow Brook. After looking
around their extremely interesting Museum we went to
our hotel for our first night’s stop.
Saturday morning and our first stop was New Hall
Mill Walmley.
The Mill is a two and a half storey high building of
the 18th century, although parts of the mill and
cottage are from an earlier age and could have been
part of the first mill on the site, probably around
the 1500s. In 1899 a loaf of bread made from wheat
that had been cut, threshed, milled and baked all on
the same day was sent to Queen Victoria.
Since then, this feat has been repeated twice to
commemorate the Silver and Golden Jubilees of Queen
Elizabeth II. Walmley has a very unusual automatic
stone dressing machine that was made in America in
the late 1800s, thought to be the only one of this
type that survives.
From Walmley we travelled north to Cheddleton Flint
Mill, a fine example of a grade II* listed water
mill that ground flint for the pottery industry.
The site features two water wheels, a small museum,
a period cottage, the canal and many other
exhibits. The Cheddleton Flint Mill Preservation
Trust was formed in 1967 to preserve the unique mill
complex and provide educational information
concerning the historical development of pottery raw
materials.
In 1972 the Trust widened its objectives to
encompass more of Britain's Industrial Heritage and
became the Cheddleton Flint Mill Industrial Heritage
Trust.
We then travelled about 5 miles to see Brindley's
Mill
at Leek. This working water powered corn mill was
built in 1752 by James Brindley, millwright and
canal engineer, renowned as the pioneer of the canal
system in Great Britain. The Mill is the only known
corn mill attributable to James. It was restored
from a derelict state by the Brindley Mill
Preservation Trust in 1974.
The Mill demonstrates Brindley's work both as an
architect and a millwright. It is a designated
Ancient Monument and listed by English Heritage as
of historic importance.
After leaving Leek we travelled through the High
Peaks to Caudwell’s Mill, Rowsley, just south of
Bakewell.
In 1874,
John Caudwell took a lease from the Duke of Rutland,
demolished the existing two mills, which were then
derelict, and built a huge flour and provender mill
powered by two large breast shot water wheels. The
flour mill had eight sets of millstones and the
provender mill had three more. Eleven years later,
following the International Milling Exhibition in
London, Caudwell started to upgrade the mill by
replacing some of the stones with newly developed
roller mills.
After the installation of the roller mills, the
water wheels did not provide enough power and water
turbines replaced them. In all, the mill
contains 22 pairs of roller mills. Two purifiers
and the four plansifters ensured the flour was fine
enough to be sold to bakers.
Visitors today can see a fine example on all four
floors of an early water powered roller mill as a
complete "machine", believed to be the only such
mill left in Europe that can be visited. We then set
off on the 100 mile journey back to our Hotel in
Kidderminster.
Sunday Morning: after a hearty breakfast at a local
greasy spoon, we set of towards Oxford to visit
Combe Steam & Watermill belonging to the Blenheim
Estate of the Duke of Marlborough. Fortunately the
1852 Beam engine was in steam, a treat to us all.
The waterwheel however has lost its main water
supply and is now fed by a 10inch pipe. We were also
treated to a display of Morris Eights Series E, two
pre-war and one post-war model.
Our final destination for the weekend was Wheatley
Windmill. This mill is distinctly unusual; it is an
octagonal shaped three storey 18th Century tower
mill. There were originally four sails (which
turned clockwise rather than the more usual
anti-clock) but for a time the windmill operated on
two sails only. Ochre was mined at Shotover and
Wheatley until the early 20th Century.
The Windmill at Wheatley was adapted to grind the
ochres which were used as raw pigment and they were
also burned to form red ochre pigments that were
used by Artists. The mill was last used in 1914 when
the mill closed and fell into disrepair.
It was struck by lightning in 1939 and the cap and
sails were destroyed. The Wheatley Windmill
Restoration Society has been restoring the windmill
since 1977 and it is open to the public. The last
major item left to be restored is the Boulter and
work will hopefully be carried out next winter. So
far, just over £1500 has been raised with another
£1500 to be found. Tea and cakes were consumed
before our final drive down the A34 to Chandlers
Ford.
