Watermills - the use of water to drive a wheel whose energy is then harnessed - are thought to predate windmills, devices that do the same but with wind power. The 1086AD Domesday survey of England recorded 5,624 watermills. Many of these sites still had working watermills in the eighteenth, nineteenth and even twentieth centuries. They were widely used to grind corn, but in later centuries water power was turned to a wider range of activities such as fulling, tanning and even forging iron. In some parts of the country they were very numerous. The River Wylye in Wiltshire had thirty mills on a ten mile stretch!
The current, preserved, Cogglesford Mill in Sleaford dates from around 1750 but a watermill is believed to have been on the site for a thousand years, grinding corn as the present mill still does today on its open days. The name derives from Coggle Ford nearby where a prehistoric trackway and subsequent Roman road crossed the River Slea.
My photograph shows the orange brickwork of the watermill glimpsed through the willows and other trees that surround the mill pond.
photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Photo Title: Cogglesford Mill, Sleaford, Lincolnshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 15mm (30mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.1
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
