Nether Alderley Mill is a 16th-century

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 ...

located in Congleton Road (the A34), to the south of the village of

Nether Alderley Nether Alderley is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cheshire, England, on the A34 road (England), A34 a mile and a half south of Alderley Edge. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Monk's Heath and Soss Moss. At Monk ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. It is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

, and is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It is a unique example of a triple overshot waterwheel system, two of which are in working order. It is one of only four virtually complete

corn mills A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separate ...

in Cheshire.

History

The earliest reference to the mill is in 1391. The 14th-century mill was replaced in 1595–1597, at around the time that ownership of the manor mill passed to the

Stanley family The Stanley family (or Audley-Stanley family) is an English family with many notable members, including the Earl of Derby, Earls of Derby and the Baron Audley, Barons Audley who descended from the early holders of Audley, Staffordshire, Audley ...

, and some of this late-16th century stonework survives in the mill's basement. 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. The new construction appears to have reused much of the stonework and timbers from the 16th-century mill. Improvements to the mill continued during the 1800s, with a new upper waterwheel and

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

mechanism added early in the century, followed by a new lower waterwheel and tailrace tunnels in the 1840s. Further mechanical improvements included a new cast-iron hurst frame and gearing to connect it to the upper waterwheel, installed in the 1870s. From the 1880s to 1914 the mill could be operated by a portable 10 hp

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

. The mill closed in about 1939, and the building became derelict. It came into the ownership of the National Trust in 1950. The Trust restored the mill into working order in 1967–70.

Architecture and machinery

The mill is constructed in buff-pink

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, and has a long cat-slide roof of

Kerridge Kerridge is a village in the civil parish of Bollington, in the Cheshire East district, in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Kerridge borders the neighbouring parish of Rainow. It gives its name to Kerridge Ridge – one of the ...

stone-slate. Its plan is rectangular. The roof weighs about 200 tons, and is carried in an

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...

oak frame. 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 and 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.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline National Trust properties in Cheshire Tourist attractions in Cheshire Watermills in Cheshire Mill museums in England Museums in Cheshire Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire Timber framed buildings in Cheshire

History

Architecture and machinery

See also

References

External links