IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bowes Gate Road, TARPORLEY, CW6 9PP

Flows off though the trees to re-join the River Gowy downstream.

The overshot internal waterwheel that powered three sets of stones. The picture is a mixture of 50:50 time and flash producing an interesting effect.

This shows three sets of stones - two clothed and one unclothed. The crown wheel is driving auxiliary items and is, unusually in my experience, actually driven off the great spur wheel by an extra 'stone nut'. A set of millwrights tools are laid out on the exposed bedstone (a common feature of preserved mills). The gearing is blurred as there was an element of time exposure and the machinery was positively whizzing round.

The buckets have recently been replaced with oak.

Power from the internal waterwheel is transferred by the pit wheel to the wallower.

The mill has three pairs of stones of which the two in use are a set of Derbyshire gritstone and a new set of French Burr.

This shows the cast iron pit wheel, wallower and great spur wheel. One of the stone nuts is seen and this has wooden teeth inserted into an iron centre. The jacking gear to disengage it is clearly seen and it sits on a cross tree or tenter beam that can be raised or lowered to adjust the gap between the stones. The bracket at the top was associated with an auxiliary steam engine drive.

The waterwheel shaft enters horizontally from the left and carries the cast iron pit wheel that turn the iron wallower. The wallow and iron great spur wheel are carried on the single storey wooden vertical shaft. The bracket on the top right was part of a drive from a long since disappeared auxiliary steam engine drive.

This shows the wooden hurst frame with the pit wheel in the background. The gear to the left is a stone nut that drives one of the three pairs of stones. The gear in the centre is not a true 'stone nut' as it drives the crown wheel operating the auxiliaries. As such, it does have a jacking gear to disengage it but does not have tentering gear. Two meal spouts are visible and brought the flour down from the stones above.

A Trust operates guided tours of this working watermill and here one of the volunteers is actuating the sack hoist. The sack is just coming up through the doors that will slam shut below it. The hoist can be operated from any level by the cord passing down through the floor and operates by tensioning the driving belt with a roller on a pivoted arm that the volunteer is leaning on. A weight that is out of sight to the right pulls the arm back when the cord is released. The mill is owned by United Utilities and is next to a sewage works. An overshot waterwheel in the mill drives three stones by a great spur wheel layout.