Waterwheel

In a watermill, the waterwheel is the primary source of power to operate the mill. Without a wheel, and an adequate supply of water, a watermill cannot work.

The wheel is an external overshot wheel, 11ft (3.35m) in diameter and 6ft (1.83m) wide, fitted with 36 buckets supported by two sets of six cast iron arms on an 8" iron shaft. The name T Price is cast into the shrouds but it is believed the wheel was made by George Turton of Kidderminster, most likely in the 1870s or 1880s.

The bucket risers and sole boards were originally wooden but with the last miller rarely recycling the water in the collecting tank back to the mill pond, those at the bottom of the wheel remained in the water leading to them becoming waterlogged and rotten and the wheel unbalanced. They were therefore replaced by galvanised steel sheets in early 1997.

The speed of the waterwheel is controlled by the penstock, adjusted by the miller from inside the mill. Apart from the millstones, the only other items of machinery powered by the waterwheel are the aspirator and the meal screw feeder. After leaving the wheel, the water flows through a culvert under the mill and mill cottage and into a collecting tank located in the original mill tailrace. From there it is recycled back to the mill pond by an automatic electric pump.