Wellesbourne Watermill is a fine historic flour mill near

Wellesbourne Wellesbourne is a large village in the civil parish of Wellesbourne and Walton, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. In the 2021 census the parish had a population of 7,283, a significant increase from 5,84 ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

on a

domesday 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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

site. Situated on the River Dene, the mill is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and is described as "A very complete example of a mill and mill house".

History

Formerly known as Byford Mill, it was rebuilt in 1834. It ran commercially until 1958, latterly using a belt drive from a

traction engine A traction engine is a steam engine, steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin ''tractus'', meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any ...

, the wheel last being used in 1939. The mill office door carries a date 1785 which formerly belonged to a

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single central vertical post. The vertical post is supported by four quarter bars. These ar ...

which stood in the adjacent field. The mill house is 18th century, thus considerably older than the present mill building. In 1988 the watermill was restored to working order by the Hamilton family, predominantly Sir Andrew Hamilton, with millwright David Nicholls and the Chiltern Partnership, and is still owned by the Walton Estate. It is not currently open to the public. The adjacent mill house is now a private dwelling.

Machinery

The internal wheel is breastshot and is unusual in that it carries three sets of clasp arms around the timber

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotation, rotating wheel and axle, wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In ...

. It measures diameter and wide. An iron pit wheel is driven off the wheel axle and meshes with an

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

wallower of . The spur wheel measures and drives two stone nuts of diameter.

References

Grade II listed buildings in Warwickshire Watermills in England Stratford-on-Avon District {{UK-listed-building-stub

History

Machinery

See also

References