Worsbrough Mill, also known as Worsbrough Corn Mill and Worsbrough Mill Farm is a complex of buildings including a seventeenth-century water-powered mill and a nineteenth-century steam-powered mill in

Worsbrough Worsbrough is an area about two miles south of Barnsley in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. Before 1974, Worsbrough had its own urban district council in the West Riding of the historic county of Yorkshire and ...

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The mill is open to the public and takes its water from the River Dove, but is hydraulically separate from Worsbrough Reservoir. Note that "Worsbrough" refers to an area that includes today's Worsbrough Bridge,

Worsbrough Dale Worsbrough is an area about two miles south of Barnsley in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. Before 1974, Worsbrough had its own urban district council in the West Riding of the historic county of Yorkshire and ...

, and Worsbrough Common.

Worsbrough Mill Country Park

Worsbrough Mill is located in the 240-acre Worsbrough Country Park, about 2 miles south of

on the A61, close to the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

. It includes the 60-acre Worsbrough Reservoir, which was built for the opening of the

Dearne and Dove Canal The Dearne and Dove Canal ran for almost ten miles through South Yorkshire, England from Swinton to Barnsley through nineteen locks, rising . The canal also had two short branches, the Worsbrough branch and the Elsecar branch, both about two ...

in 1804. The park includes footpaths and cyclepaths that meander through Willow Carr and around the circumference of the reservoir. Fishing is available in the upper pond and canal basin.

History

''A'' Worsbrough Mill was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 and the first Curator, ob Shorland-Ball – 1975 to 1979researched the history and states that a "tenuous but continuous documentary record can be traced from then to 1625 which is the likely date for the building of the existing Old Mill. Whether the pre-1625 mill(s) were on the same site is not known. However, a mill was a very important part of the feudal pattern of life and settlement and thus tended to remain on the same site if that site was a satisfactory one".

Buildings

The oldest building (the ''Old Mill'') is a two-storey

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

with massive

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

s over the doors; it is operational and mills a small amount of grain. There is some doubt over the date of construction; there are no dates on or in the buildings (with one exception) but 1625 has been stated (by Shorland-Ball) to be "acceptably representative". The New Mill was originally steam-driven and contained a Watt-type

beam engine A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newco ...

which was scrapped in 1922. During the restoration of the mill buildings in the 1960s and early 1970s, a 1911 model Hornsby hot bulb oil engine originally from Sykehouse Windmill was installed by Geoff Hatfield (Millwright). The engine still functions, but is not linked to the millstones in the New Mill. The building is known to have been completed 1843 but was not present on a detailed map of 1840.

References

External links

- Worsbrough Mill: Working Mill and Country Park
- official site {{coord, 53.5254, -1.4741, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Watermills in South Yorkshire Buildings and structures in Barnsley Tourist attractions in Barnsley Mill museums in England Museums in South Yorkshire Parks and open spaces in South Yorkshire

Worsbrough Mill Country Park

History

Buildings

See also

References

External links