Wellesbourne Watermill
Wellesbourne Watermill is a fine, historic flour mill near Wellesbourne, Warwickshire, rebuilt in 1834 on a site where a mill has stood since the Domesday Book. It ran commercially until 1958 latterly by a belt drive from a tractor, the wheel last being used in the 1910s. The mill office door carries a date 1785 which formerly belonged to a post mill which stood in the adjacent field. The mill house is considerably older than the present mill building. The watermill was originally restored by the Hamilton family (predominantly Sir Andrew Hamilton, with millwright David Nicholls and the Chiltern Partnership), and is still owned by Walton Estate but not currently open. The mill house is now a private dwelling.
Technical details
The internal wheel is breastshot and is unusual in that it carries three sets of clasp arms around the timber axle. It measures 17 feet diameter and 6 feet wide. An 8-foot iron pit wheel is driven off the wheel axle and meshes with an iron wallower of 3 feet 2 inches. The Mill machinery|spur wheel measures 7 feet 4 inches and drives two stone nuts of 18 inch diameter.