Remains of Astley Forge Mill

Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 24 Dec 2014

These decidedly put the archaeological into industrial archaeology and are not really my cup of tea. The mill has a stone (leaning at the right) with the date 1652 on it. The Dick Brook was canalised in the 1650s by Andrew Yarranton and the mill built as a tilt hammer mill to service a nearby blast furnace. The mill later became a fulling and paper mill until it was taken over by the Worcester Porcelain Company for the grinding of ‘grog’ from about 1760 till about 1808. It reverted back again to an iron works when a puddling furnace was installed (which has been excavated in the recent past). The site then evolved into domestic residences and was ultimately cleared. I believe this large masonry is the sluice serving a large wheel pit to the right that is not really obvious to me. The leat is the shallow trough ending at the wall and came from quite a way up stream. The light was very poor and this is a flash shot on IA mode on my Lumix and has then had levels adjusted and the unsharp mask applied in photoshop.

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