Nether Alderley Mill
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox historic site
Nether Alderley Mill is a 16th-century watermill located in Congleton Road (the A34), to the south of the village of Nether Alderley, Cheshire, England. It is owned by the National Trust,[1] and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.[2] It is a unique example of a triple 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 tailrace 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 ashlar sandstone, and has a long cat-slide roof of Kerridge stone-slate. Its plan is rectangular.[2] The roof weighs about 200 tons, and is carried in an 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 Template:Convert and Template:Convert 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
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