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Great Gap, LEIGHTON BUZZARD, LU7 9DZ

Marked on Ordnance Survey maps as Greatgap but also referred to elsewhere as Great Gap, this is a hamlet on the B488 near Ivinghoe. At the northern end are these semi-detached late Victorian cottages, one of which was for sale at the time of this photograph.

View South East on the road to Ivinghoe

The Mill race emerges into a brick lined gully which could be blocked by boards to form a deep pool. This was filled by a spout which fed water from the Mill Pond. (see Image which shows the spout). Sheep were assembled in front of the mill and thrown into the brick lined pool. A farmhand standing in the “pulpit” (a corner can be seen in the photograph) guided the sheep under the spout to wash the wool before shearing. When washed the sheep were allowed escape up a brick channel (towards where the photographer was standing). For more information see Image

Shared Information for pictures of the watermill on Image While there were watermills in the Ivinghoe area of Buckinghamshire in 1232 these early references cannot be tied to a particular mill. The first explicit reference to the Ford End Mill is in 1781 when it was owned by Mrs Judy Reddall and tenanted by Bernard Wilkes. William Heley worked Ford End Farm and Mill between 1784 and 1798, and the mill contains a board painted with “W H 1785.” By 1963 the mill was in such a poor state of repair that it was hardly usable, and since 1965 the Pitstone Local History Society has worked on restoring it. It is now maintained and run by the Ford End Watermill Society and is open to the public on about a dozen days a year, with the mill working on most of these days. For more information (including many photographs, a detailed history, and an explanation of how the mill works) see www.fordendwatermill.co.uk

The overshot wheel has a cast iron axle and spokes and is 11 feet in diameter and five feet wide. Because the wheel is not in continuous use the 30 oak buckets only had a short life (due to repeatedly getting wet and then drying out) and have been replaced with metal buckets. For more information see Image

A B-24H Liberator crashed on this farm in 1944, killing two crew members. This memorial was dedicated in 2009.

The tail race was set up as a sheep wash to clean the wool on the sheep before shearing to improve it. Not the same as a sheep dip. Boards placed between the two wooden posts under the unguarded bridge dammed about 1.5 m of water. The sheep were dropped into this pool and a farmhand in oilskins stood in the square cast iron box (the pulpit) and used a crook to dunk the sheep and probably to also hold them under water cascading from the spout on the extreme right. The clean sheep swam along the narrow brick channel until they touched bottom and could climb out. There is a photograph of the wash in use in 1939 and the Society is hoping to restore this unusual feature.

A timber framed, weather boarded mill with an overshot wheel driving two pairs of stones. It was milling and the upper floors shook fit to loosen your fillings. This is the all metal overshot wheel. This is 11' diameter by 5' wide. The 30 metal buckets replaced oak ones in 1985. The current metal wheel replaced a wooden one in c1890. This shows the wheel on load from a window on the stone floor.