Nether Alderley Mill

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Coordinates: 53°16′58″N 2°14′11″W / 53.28290°N 2.23632°W / 53.28290; -2.23632
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Nether Alderley Mill
OS grid reference
SJ 843 763
Built16th century
Restored1967–70
Restored byNational Trust
Listed Building – Grade II*
Designated25 May 1952
Reference no.1139592
Nether Alderley Mill is located in Cheshire
Nether Alderley Mill
Location in Cheshire

Nether Alderley Mill is a 16th-century

overshot waterwheel system, two of which are in working order.[3] It is one of only four virtually complete corn mills in Cheshire.[1]

History

The earliest reference to the mill is in 1391.[4] The 14th-century mill was replaced in 1595–1597, at around the time that ownership of the manor mill passed to the Stanley family, and some of this late-16th century stonework survives in the mill's basement.[4][3]

In the mid-18th century, the mill was enlarged to its current size and layout. To provide more power, a new mill pond was built, along with new tunnels, inside which the date 1746 is inscribed.[4] The new construction appears to have reused much of the stonework and timbers from the 16th-century mill.[4] Improvements to the mill continued during the 1800s, with a new upper waterwheel and cast-iron mechanism added early in the century, followed by a new lower waterwheel and tail-race tunnels in the 1840s.[4] Further mechanical improvements included a new cast-iron hurst frame and gearing to connect it to the upper waterwheel, installed in the 1870s.[4]

From the 1880s to 1914 the mill could be operated by a portable 10 hp steam engine. The mill closed in about 1939, and the building became derelict.[3] It came into the ownership of the National Trust in 1950.[5] The Trust restored the mill into working order in 1967–70.[2]

Architecture and machinery

The mill is constructed in buff-pink

Elizabethan oak frame.[3] The rear wall of the mill forms the dam for the lake supplying the water for the mill; this also acts as a moat for Alderley Old Hall. The water drives two overshot wheels of 12 feet (3.7 m) and 13 feet (4.0 m) diameter. Each operates separately, forming in effect two distinct mills with its own machinery, the water passing from the upper wheel to the lower one.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Nether Alderley Mill, National Trust, retrieved 10 March 2012
  2. ^ a b c Historic England, "Nether Alderley Mill and dam wall (1139592)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 10 March 2012
  3. ^ a b c d Nether Alderley Mill, Nether Alderley Parish Council, retrieved 10 March 2012
  4. ^ a b c d e f Building Nether Alderley Mill, National Trust, retrieved 11 August 2022
  5. ^ a b Historic England, "Nether Alderley Mill (76385)", Research records (formerly PastScape), retrieved 10 March 2012

External links

Media related to Nether Alderley Mill at Wikimedia Commons

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