Cogglesford Mill, Sleaford

click photo to enlarge
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

Alvingham watermill

click photo to enlarge
There has been a watermill at Alvingham, near Louth, Lincolnshire, since the 1100s. The brick house and the lower storey of the present mill (the white painted building) dates from the 1770s. The latter was extended upwards in about 1820 when the machinery was replaced. Alvingham watermill worked on a commercial basis until the 1960s, and the mill we see today has been carefully restored to working condition.

An 11 foot (3.35m) iron breast shot wheel power two pairs of overdriven Peak stones. The water supplying the power comes from the nearby River Lud. It passes under the Louth Navigation (a canal of 1767) in a 60 feet long brick tunnel that is 5 feet (1.5m) in diameter and returns to the river in another tunnel under the canal.

I took my photograph from a bridge at the end of the mill pond that carries a road to a farmyard. The clear May sunlight, on a day that was colder than it looks, sharply delineated the mill and its surroundings and gave every colour a strong boost.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Nikon D5300
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 18mm (27mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f9
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO:100
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On