The Grade 2 listed Stretton Water Mill is recorded from the 14th century, and was in almost continuous use until 1959. It was restored by Cheshire Council in 1975 and became a museum in 1977. It is located not far from Farndon and Holt, in Cheshire, very near to the villages of Stretton and Tilston. Today it is a museum, with working water wheel, gears and related machinery, looking like an enormous clockwork toy, but powered wholly by water. The mill still produces flour, but this cannot be purchased because the methods used, which are entirely authentic, contravene modern health and safety regulations. However, flour from Walk Mill, near Chester, is sold in the shop.
This tiny vernacular cottage-type building, part red sandstone, part weather-board, is approached down a single track road (lots of passing places) and sits in an attractive rural setting. It lies to the east of the well-manicured village of Stretton and its rural environs.
As well as the mill building, the two water wheels and the mill machinery, there is a big millpond, a picnic area, a car park (in a small field), and access via both external steps and disabled-friendly slopes between the two floors. There is more visitor information at the end of this post.
Stretton Mill is is a splendid remnant of rural architecture and at the same time tells a story about the industrial importance of water power in the lives of rural areas from the Middle Ages into the 20th Century, working around the clock during the Second World War.
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Getting your bearings: The waterworks
If you find that the tour is already in progress when you arrive (the tour is obligatory due to health and safety considerations) it would be a good use of the waiting time to get your bearings. If you go straight into the tour, don’t forget to have a look around afterwards. Simply walk up the short footpath from the car park towards the first storey of the mill, and look at the large, motionless expanse of water behind the building. This is the millpond, which is fed by the Carden brook. The brook is out of sight, but can be seen running under the road just a little further up the road towards Carden from the mill.
The job of the millpond is to feed the two water wheels. The mill pond’s level can be controlled by a sluice into a wide by-wash,which drains the water into a tail-race or escape channel that eventually meets up with the main stream. On the other side of the mill is a short flight of steps leading up to the other side of the mill, with some picnic tables. Sluice equipment also controls the volume of water reaching the wheels from the millpond by raising or lowering the paddles (rectangular pieces of wood that can be dropped to stop water flow or raised to allow it). When the wheels are out of use, for example when the mill is closed to visitors or to permit repairs to be carried out, the paddles can be dropped to stop the water entirely.
A Short History of British Milling
Grinding grain
Harvested grains of wheat and barley are rock solid on the outside, and there is very little that one could imagine doing with them for nutritional purposes, except perhaps soaking and fermenting them. The prehistoric solution, and one that was followed by subsequent millers, was to break them up and reduce them to powder by grinding them between stones, by hand. By the Roman period, water wheels had been invented, and in the Medieval period, when Stretton Mill was built, these had been turned into both an industry and an art form, using vast carved stone wheels driven by water and a series of gears in an end to end process that introduced grain at one end and produced flour at the other.
Medieval mills
The mill at Stretton dates at least to 1350. Water-powered mills were the dominant industrial mechanism during the Middle Ages, and were widespread, rescuing householders from the time-consuming, back-breaking and tedious task of grinding corn by hand.
The millstones in a watermill, one set over the top of the other, were coarse. They were carefully and skilfully carved with a set of precise grooves called furrows that helped not only to grind the grain but to move it from the centre of the millstone to the exterior. The coarse stone cracks open the seed grains to allow the release of the kernel, and the grooves allow it to escape down a chute to be collected in bags below.
Millstones were sourced both from within Britain and beyond, with imports of millstones made from particularly desirable stone areas overseas recorded at ports around the coast. The cost of the millstone itself could be considerable, and the additional expenses of transportation and fitting meant that these were high value items that were carefully maintained.
Some mills with twin wheels would operate different milling activities simultaneously, such as corn processing and wool processing (known as fulling). A mill was built by the lord of the manor (the term manor referring to the estate rather than just the house), who charged tolls called soke rights for its use. Initially this was in form of a share of the corn and later was on a cash basis. Corn mills were used for reducing grains into products suitable for human and livestock consumption. The term “corn,” which is generally used in conjunction with mills, refers not to the New World corn but was used as a generic term for wheat, barley, oats and rye. The soke rights paid for the initial capital outlay and maintenance costs, and provided an income for the manor. The use of the mill by manor tenants was not optional. Manual milling at home was banned and anyone owning private milling equipment could be fined. It is estimated that estates could extract as much as 5% of the estate’s total income from watermills.
In the mid 14th century after a period of severe famine, the Black Death arrived and obliterated around 25% of the population. Once recovery was underway with a much smaller population, there was competition for labour and a rise of wages. Instead of operating mills themselves, lords of manors often leased out their mills to private tenants such as the minor gentry, merchants and specialist millers and craftsmen who found themselves in a world of expanding opportunity. At the same time, the abrupt decline in population meant that many other mills were abandoned, and fell into disrepair before either being revived at a later date or being allowed to decay. In the case of Stretton it is not known precisely what happened, but subsequent records indicate that enough of the local population survived to either maintain or restore that the mill after the traumas of the 14th century. Indeed, the use of the mill to save on manual flour processing during a population crisis would probably have assisted economic recovery.
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Stretton Mill
The Medieval and Early Tudor Mill
From 1281 the manor (estate) of Stretton was owned by the Warren family, who held it until the 15th century. The mill at Stretton dates at least to 1350, when it is first recorded in a transfer deed, meaning that it was built before this date. Given that the Black Death was sweeping through Britain in 1348, it was probably built before that date. It is not known exactly what the mill would have looked like before the 17th century. The mechanism in the mid 14th century would have been very much the same as the one still working today, with the waterwheel operating via gears to turn the millstones. There was only one waterwheel until the 18th century, positioned to the left as you face the mill, and this would have been on the outside, and was not incorporated into the interior of the building until the 19th century.
Stretton was dedicated to the processing of grain, mainly barley, oats and rye with some wheat. Wheat bread was the most expensive, and used only for bread for the better off. Barley could be used for an inferior bread, oats could be used to make porridge and oat cakes and rye was used bread and beer. Barley, oats and rye could all be used for animal fodder too.
In the 1500s, Stretton Mill was purchased by the Leche family of Carden Hall.
Stretton Mill 1600-1900
The oldest part of the mill dates to 1630. In the 17th century the building is thought to have been made of a timber framework, filled with wattle and daub. Wattle and daub is a mixture of thin wooden strips woven like basketry to form into a lattice, which provides a base to which a material can be added to create panels that form the walls of the building between the timber frames. The mill was almost certainly thatched, the materials for which were easy to source in a rural agricultural location. The fixtures that attached the wattle and daub to the frame can still be seen at the mill, and an example was pointed out on the guided tour. The windows, vital not only for visibility but to allow the flour-filled air to clear, would have been provided with shutters. The water wheel was known as a breast-shot, and was located on the east end of the mill, to the left as you face it from the road.
There are four main categories of water wheel, the undershot, pitchback, overshot, and breast-shot. The main difference between them is how water is fed to the wheel, how the wheel uses this water to turn, and what sort of power this delivers to the machinery. Each has benefits depending on a number of factors. The overshot wheel is fed from an overhead channel, requiring a water source that is at least as high as the top of the wheel, runs counter clockwise and is the most efficient when plenty of water is available. It is also an expensive solution, requiring extensive installation work. The undershot is powered by a low level water source that works by capturing the water between the wheel and the wheel pit, and is the least efficient.
The breast-shot design sits between the overshot and undershot, receiving water from a higher level than the undershot but a lower level than an overshot. The main advantage of the breast-shot over the overshot is that it can use lower levels of water, allowing a mill to continue output even during periods of drought.
The breast-shot wheel at Stretton is unusual in that the sluice controlling access of water to the wheel has three paddles, each of which can be operated to let water into the waterwheel’s buckets at different levels. This makes it very flexible when the water level of the millpond changes.
The water for the breast-shot wheel vanishes under the east wall of the building’s extension, into the wheel-housing, shown to the right. Look out for this feature when you are outside at the level of the millpond’s surface.
The oldest local extant contemporary buildings in the area are Stretton Lower Hall, which was built in 1660 on a site that had been apparently been moated, and Stretton Old Hall, built in the 17th century and extended in the 19th century.
By the 18th century, Stretton was one of a great many watermills and several windmills dotted throughout Cheshire and the Wirral. As the map below shows, water power dominated in Cheshire whereas on the Wirral wind power was source of power for milling. As the Industrial Revolution began to gain momentum, mechanization, mainly dependent on a water source, spread rapidly.
At Stretton there is an inscription commemorating major structural changes to the mill in 1770. Improvements included a sandstone base, topped with weatherboard and finished off with a slate roof, still with a new overshot wheel added to the west end, together with a window overlooking it, on the right as you face the mill. The breast-shot wheel at the east end was still on the outside.
The addition of the overshot wheel was an important one. The breast-shot wheel has been explained above. The overshot wheel, which delivered water directly to the top of the wheel via a trough, was far more efficient when the millpond was full. There is considerable drop from the millpond to the trough in which the overshot wheel sits. This drop is known as the head. The higher the head, the more powerful the potential of the waterwheel.
The water is taken away from the mill after passing through the wheels. Each has a tailrace that takes the spent water under the road, and if you cross the road you can see it leaving via small natural-looking channels that wend through the fields to re-join the Carden Brook.
The combination of the two wheels gave the mill the ability to function at maximum efficiency when rainfall provided a healthy supply of water, allowing both wheels to be operated, with the overshot wheel being particularly productive. At the same time, when drought lowered the level of the millpond, putting the overshot wheel out of action, the breast-shot would still be viable. The combination of two wheels was a very good risk-management strategy.
Contemporary with the mill at this period is Stretton Hall, brick-built in 1763 for John Leche (1704 – 1765) of Carden. There were actually nineteen men at the head of the Leche family named John, and this was the fourteenth of them.
In the early 19th century the building was extended to the east to incorporate the breast-shot wheel, which could be inspected from the small arched window shown in the illustration below, and which survives today.
The extension was built of red sandstone, but the weather-board was retained on the older section of the mill. This is very like the mill building that survives today, albeit with less red sandstone and more weatherboard than today’s building. As well as the original wooden shutters, glass was probably fitted into the windows at this time.
The 1940s
The watermill was in 24 hour use during the Second World War, milling grains for both bread and animal feeds. It was in continuous use until 1959, when its last miller died, and it fell into disrepair.
The modern era
The mill was acquired in 1975 by Cheshire County Council and was renovated in 1977 and given Grade 1 listing. Stretton Mill as it stands today is part red sandstone, part weatherboard, and has a brick-built extension. The fact that it incorporates earlier features of the mill building is a particularly attractive aspect of the mill that helps its history to be recreated, and apart from repairs it has changed very little since the 19th Century. It is still fully functional, and produces flour which, unfortunately, does not conform to modern health and safety standards so cannot be purchased from the shop.
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What you see today
The exterior
Much of what can be seen of the building’s exterior today has been described above, but there are two notable exceptions. One is the red sandstone-built chimney at far right, which connects to the hearth on the ground floor of the mill. The hearth is a particular mystery given the risk of fire in an environment in which dry goods were being milled and could fill the atmosphere with combustible material. The other is the brick-built extension in the middle of the three photographs above. The dates of both are unknown. The use of brick does indicate a date after the mid 1700s, but is likely to be much later.
The water wheels
You can see both the overshot wheel on the outside, at the west end, and the breastshot wheel on the inside at the opposite end. Of the two water wheels, only the overshot water wheel was working in late summer 2022, and was doing a great job. The other was under repair but in June 2023, when I drove past, was not operating although the mill was open at the time, although the overshot wheel was trundling away.
The machinery
Stretton’s purpose was to grind grain. The internal gearing translated the power of the big water wheel, via a series of interconnected wheels to turn the millstones.
The ground floor (meal floor)
If you look at the wall opposite the doorway, you will see that it is damp. This is because the millpond is on the other side, and in the ground floor room you are well below the surface of the pond, as you can see when you walk up to the first floor level.
The ground floor contains the drive machinery for both wheels, and on the tour the machinery for the overshot wheel is clearly visible. When you enter the ground floor, you can see how the water wheels connect to the rest of the machinery that drives the mill via a series of toothed wheels, which interlock with one another to send power to the millstones above. The Stretton arrangement is known as an underdriven spurwheel arrangement, where the water wheel links to a much smaller vertical pitwheel wheel that is fitted on the same axis and turns at the same rate. This has teeth that interlock with a small horizontal wallower wheel, above which is the spur wheel, all of which can be seen in the above photograph.
This is also the room into which the processed grain falls from the stone room, so it both begins the process and ends it.
The top (bin room) and middle (stone room) floors
We were able to visit two floors, but originally three floors were in use, which is the usual arrangement for a watermill. The top floor, the bin floor, is inaccessible to visitors, located in the eaves of the roof, and reached by a stepladder. This is where grain was stored before being tipped into a grain bin that released the grain into a chute that entered the hoppers of the stone room below.
The stone floor, which is at the level of the mill pond surface houses the machinery and devices for funnelling grain. It feels rather like being inside an enormous clockwork toy, with interlocking cogs and gears controlling the turning of the millstones and the grinding of grain, as well as the lowering and raising of the top millstone (the runner) and the raising and lowering of sacks. With hindsight it seems extraordinary that so much equipment could be fitted into such a small space.
The meal floor gearing enters the stone floor and interlocks with two pinions called stone nuts, which turn the millstones. There are two pairs of millstones at Stretton, each pair driven by its own wheel. The stones are contained within wooden containers called tuns. There is a small gap between the upper millstone, the runner, millstone and the lower millstone, bedstone. This gap is called the nip. The nip was adjusted by the miller in response to the type of grain being processed and the fineness required. According to the West Cheshire Museums Booklet about the mill, the breas-tshot stones are currently French burr stone from the Paris Basin and the overshot stones are millstone grit from the Peak District.
The grain falls from the bin floor, into a large wooden funnel on the stone floor called a hopper, which sits on a horizontal wooden frame called a horse. It is funnelled down a chute called a meal ark into the millstones where it is ground before being forced down the to the edge of the millstones where it is funnelled down a meal spout into a meal bin or ark on the meal floor.
Visiting details
It is a short drive from Farndon and is shown on brown heritage signs from the main roads in the vicinity. If you are relying on the brown signs, look out for them carefully, as some of those closest to the mill are often partly concealed behind foliage. The postcode for satnav systems is SY14 7JA. The road to the mill, from either direction, is single track but has plenty of passing places.
Do check out the opening times on the Chester and Cheshire West web page for Stretton Mill before visiting because the mill is only open in afternoons and only on certain days of the week. There is a small entrance fee, £3.70 at the time of writing. Please note that it is cash-only. Here’s the web address:
https://strettonwatermill.westcheshiremuseums.co.uk/visit-us/
The site is partially suitable for those with mobility issues. There is a footpath that winds very gently up the slope that leads to the upper level of the mill, avoiding stairs, but this would probably be a struggle for wheelchair users during or after wet weather. There are seats at all key points for those who are mobile but need to rest legs.
Because of very valid health and safety issues, you will need to be accompanied around the interior of the building on a guided tour (see below). You can walk around the exterior without a chaperon, and there is step-free access, as well as some nicely located picnic areas for those who wish to linger and enjoy the view over the mill pond. It is a really lovely location. There is a gift shop, selling postcards, books, posters, and flour (milled at Walk Mill, not far from Chester because Stretton Mill is not a commercial milling enterprise and falls below rigorous modern health and safety standards).
Walking further along the road in the opposite direction from Stretton village, approaching Carden, the rural scene gives way to golf, as you find yourself around the back of the Carden Park Hotel and its immense golf course, which spans both sides of the road.
The guided tour
The guide on the day provided us with a creative version of the birth of agriculture in the Near East. If you want to prime yourself beforehand with the basics of the spread of agriculture from the Near East through Europe to and throughout Britain see the Britannica’s Origins of Agriculture web pages, if you can put up with the adverts.
At the end of this talk our guide gave us some hard wheat grains to hold and examine. The inner kernel is contained within a hard husk that protects it, and the husks demonstrate unambiguously why processing is so necessary. They are extremely tough. We were then taken on a fascinating tour of the building, starting with the water wheels. Only the overshot wheel was working when we visited, due to repairs on the breast-shot wheel. Next, we proceeded to the first floor “stone room” to look at where the milling happens. There is a long curving ramp that enables those who cannot manage steps to reach the top floor. We then returned downstairs to look at where the external overshot wheel meets the internal gears, and to see where the milled flour was collected.
The tour of the mill equipment was very informative and extremely useful. Unless you are familiar with how all the pieces fit together, it is helpful to have an explanation of the entire process as it would have happened in real time.
Final Comments
The video below was taken during our first visit in summer 2022. I drove past in June 2023 and had a look to see if the breast-shot wheel, which had been under repair in 2022, was running again, but it was not. The overshot wheel, however, is terrific, issuing a rhythmic rumbling noise that it is difficult to describe, but can be heard in the video.
It was an absolute treat to see a working watermill, and this one is a particularly engaging example in a lovely location.
Sources:
Books, booklets and papers
Author uncredited. Historical Background to Stretton Watermill and the Milling Process. West Cheshire Museums.
Dyer, C. 2005. An Age of Transition? Economy and Society in England in the Later Middle Ages. Oxford University Press
Harris, N.S. Traditional Corn Milling Watermills, with drawings by John Brandrick. Written and published by Nigel Harris
Phillips, A.D.M. and Phillips, C.B. 2002. A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire. Cheshire County Council and Cheshire Community Council Publications Trust
Singleton, William, A. 1952. The Traditional House-Types in Rural Lancashire and Cheshire, off-print from The Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Volume 104, p. 75-91.
Watts, M. 2000. Water and Wind Power. Shire Publications
Watts, M. 2006. Watermills. Shire Library
Wenham, P. 1989. Watermills. Robert Hale
Websites
British Listed Buildings
Stretton Mill and Steps, Millrace and Sluice Adjoining
https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101279423-stretton-mill-and-steps-millrace-and-sluice-adjoining-stretton
Cheshire Live
The 700-year-old ‘idyllic’ Cheshire watermill that’s like stepping back in time by Angela Ferguson, 12th March 2023
https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/whats-on/700-year-old-idyllic-cheshire-26422639
Geni
Carden Hall, Cheshire (for details of the Leche family)
https://www.geni.com/projects/Carden-Hall-Cheshire-England/27610
Mills Archive
https://catalogue.millsarchive.org
Stretton Mill at West Cheshire Museums
Stretton Mill – Visits
https://strettonwatermill.westcheshiremuseums.co.uk/visit-us/
Wikipedia
Listed Buildings in Stretton, West Cheshire and Chester
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listed_buildings_in_Stretton,_Cheshire_West_and_Chester