St Mary's Mill - waterwheel
Introduction
The photograph on this page of St Mary's Mill - waterwheel by Chris Allen as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
St Mary's Mill - waterwheel
Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 27 May 2012
The survivor of two breast shot waterwheels in this mill. This is a breast shot wheel with a rim drive through speed increasing gearing to a large pulley that drove the floors of the mill above. It is claimed that the two wheels developed 30 horsepower together. This wheel last turned in the 1940s and the severe wear on the gear teeth suggest it wouldn't have worked for much longer without replacement of the rim drive. The framework that supported the second wheel's drive gears is seen in the background. The photograph is a mixture of time and flash as the foreground gearing and the inside of the wheel were very dark. You can see that the mill is not fireproof with cast iron columns supporting wooden floors. There are a few open days per year and visits must be prebooked.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.717958
Longitude
-2.166853