Haxted Watermill is a much-restored Grade II listed

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, close to the border with

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, and is powered by the River Eden.

History

The mill was first mentioned in the will of Sir Reginald de Cobham in 1361. The western half of the current building, constructed on the foundations of the 14th Century mill, dates to about 1680 and the eastern half dates to 1797. The mill was last used to grind

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

in 1919 but worked until 1945, grinding meal for local farmers. The last miller was Thomas Stanford whose family had operated the mill for the previous two centuries. Purchased by Mr Woodrow in 1949, he spent the next twenty years restoring the machinery to working order. The mill was opened as a museum of water milling and water pumping in 1966. In recent years it has operated as a bar and brasserie but is now closed. In 2016, planning permission was granted to site three shepherd huts on the adjoining site as guest accommodation for visitors to the mill.

Machinery

The current

overshot A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

waterwheel has a diameter of and a width of . It was installed in about 1830, but by 1972 the 72 iron buckets had failed and were replaced by

fibreglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass c ...

replicas. The bearing-stone for an earlier,

undershot A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

waterwheel was found during renovation and this dates to the fourteenth century. In full working order the current wheel produced about , rotating at 8 r.p.m. and driving three pairs of

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...

s, through gearing, at 120 r.p.m. The pit wheel and wallower are of the same date as the waterwheel, but the great spur wheel, made of

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

with applewood teeth, has been dated to 1680. The mill originally operated three pairs of French burr millstones. At some stage a fourth pair was added, driven from a shaft off the crown wheel, but this was too much for the machinery and was disconnected.

References

Watermills in Surrey Defunct museums in England Edenbridge, Kent Grade II listed buildings in Surrey Flour mills in the United Kingdom Grinding mills in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Surrey {{UK-museum-stub