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Malin Bridge Water Wheel


philistine

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As a young lad i occasionally use to see this wheel turning on my way to malin bridge school, but have not seen it turning for many a year now.

I thought part of the deal to change the adjacent buildings into flats included resteration of the water wheel ?

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As a young lad i occasionally use to see this wheel turning on my way to malin bridge school, but have not seen it turning for many a year now.

I thought part of the deal to change the adjacent buildings into flats included resteration of the water wheel ?

Welcome to Sheffield History philistine and thank you for posting.

I come from the opposite side of town to Malin Bridge but didn't the building with the water wheel used to be a Comet wharehouse store in the 1970's?

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It's been a number of things over the years, but the OP is right, the developer was supposed to bring the wheel into operation as part of the planning agreement.

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Welcome to Sheffield History philistine and thank you for posting.

I come from the opposite side of town to Malin Bridge but didn't the building with the water wheel used to be a Comet wharehouse store in the 1970's?

It certainly did, DaveH. I went to Malin Bridge Schools and as a little lad we were taken around the place when it was a corn & seed merchants. We were given tiny cloth bags of different grains for the "nature table". There was a cast iron weighbridge set in the road surface outside the front of the building, a thing to avoid on the push-bike when it was wet.

It was disused for a while before Comet took it over and renovated the place and added the extensions on the back, the repair workshops were upstairs at the front. I believe it was at this time that the wheel (Sheffield's only undershot wheel) was renovated and used to sometimes turn. I understand that it wasn't coupled to anything.

It then was empty for a long while until part of it was used as a Chinese restaurant.

HD

Postscript

There is a 70's photo of the front of the mill on Picture Sheffield ref W00720. It shows the weighbridge in front of the small doorway.

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It certainly did, DaveH. I went to Malin Bridge Schools and as a little lad we were taken around the place when it was a corn & seed merchants. We were given tiny cloth bags of different grains for the "nature table". There was a cast iron weighbridge set in the road surface outside the front of the building, a thing to avoid on the push-bike when it was wet.

It was disused for a while before Comet took it over and renovated the place and added the extensions on the back, the repair workshops were upstairs at the front. I believe it was at this time that the wheel (Sheffield's only undershot wheel) was renovated and used to sometimes turn. I understand that it wasn't coupled to anything.

It then was empty for a long while until part of it was used as a Chinese restaurant.

HD

Postscript

There is a 70's photo of the front of the mill on Picture Sheffield ref W00720. It shows the weighbridge in front of the small doorway.

Having established that it was the Comet wharehouse building I have seen this wheel several times during this period (1968-1975) but I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen it working.

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I can confirm that I have seen it working now and then.

A long time ago mind you. When it was Comet or the Chinese I think.

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Guest onebigsi

I use to work voluntary for the countryside management project and occasionally we used to clean out the water wheel and the head and tail goit. When comet vacated the building the building was converted to flats etc, at roughly the same time the water wheel was restored in this time I have seen it in operation only twice which is a shame. Some times I can't see the point in restoring some thing like this and then not to be used so all can see.

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I use to work voluntary for the countryside management project and occasionally we used to clean out the water wheel and the head and tail goit. When comet vacated the building the building was converted to flats etc, at roughly the same time the water wheel was restored in this time I have seen it in operation only twice which is a shame. Some times I can't see the point in restoring some thing like this and then not to be used so all can see.

Welcome to Sheffield History onebigsi and thank you for posting this reply.

It is nice to hear from someone who actually worked on the maintainence of the wheel and so obviously knows it well.

I fully agree that if the wheel is maintained to a working standard it is a pity that it is not actually working for people to visit and see and it does seem a pointless waste.

However, could Health and Safety be an issue?

Where I work in a school we had a student killed many years ago while on holiday in Cornwall. On the long road down from the public car park to the harbour in the fishing village of Polperro there is water wheel that is powered by the stream that runs parallel to the road towards the harbour. This wheel always used to be working in the holiday season for visitors to see. However, this young man feel into the wheel and became caught in its mechanism and killed. Ever since when I have been to Cornwall and visited Polperro the wheel is securely fenced off from the public and is chained and fastened in such a way that it cannot move.

I am sure this closure is as a direct result of the accident.

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Guest onebigsi

It possibly could be closed because of that incident but I also think its also a case of council cutbacks and H&S. I know when the country side centre on wood lane has an open day the wheel is sometimes operational When the wheel was restored they had a few volunteers to man the wheel,and that stopped after a while. Its a shame because its the start of two great walks (walk one via robin hood pub and walk two up the loxley valley to the nags head and back (nags head I can heartily recommend for a pub meal and a pint of beer)

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It possibly could be closed because of that incident but I also think its also a case of council cutbacks and H&S. I know when the country side centre on wood lane has an open day the wheel is sometimes operational When the wheel was restored they had a few volunteers to man the wheel,and that stopped after a while. Its a shame because its the start of two great walks (walk one via robin hood pub and walk two up the loxley valley to the nags head and back (nags head I can heartily recommend for a pub meal and a pint of beer)

Oh yes, I almost forgot about money, the cost, hard economic times and Council cutbacks. :rolleyes:

I suppose a shortage of funds would soon put a stop to running this sort of non-essential item. :angry:

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Guest onebigsi

That's true and what people don't or fail to realise is that these buildings, monuments and artifacts are what made sheffield what it Is today . So often the case they get disused, neglected or lost and that is a shame.

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Found this picture of the wheel online which could be used here freely on a share basis if credits were given.

They also very kindly provided the HTML embed code to allow me to do this easily.

<a href="http://ookaboo.com/o/pictures/picture/601888/The_Malin_Bridge_corn_mill_water_wheel_w"><img src="http://images.ookaboo.com/photo/m/Malin_Bridge_Corn_Mill_water_wheel_m.jpg"></a>

<br><small>Picture of <a href="http://ookaboo.com/o/pictures/topic/601867/Malin_Bridge">Malin Bridge</a>

thanks to <a href="http://ookaboo.com/o/pictures/source/76160/Mick_Knapton">Mick Knapton from Wikimedia Commons</a> and <a href="http://ookaboo.com/o/pictures/">Ookaboo!</a></small>

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Welcome to Sheffield History onebigsi and thank you for posting this reply.

It is nice to hear from someone who actually worked on the maintainence of the wheel and so obviously knows it well.

I fully agree that if the wheel is maintained to a working standard it is a pity that it is not actually working for people to visit and see and it does seem a pointless waste.

However, could Health and Safety be an issue?

Where I work in a school we had a student killed many years ago while on holiday in Cornwall. On the long road down from the public car park to the harbour in the fishing village of Polperro there is water wheel that is powered by the stream that runs parallel to the road towards the harbour. This wheel always used to be working in the holiday season for visitors to see. However, this young man feel into the wheel and became caught in its mechanism and killed. Ever since when I have been to Cornwall and visited Polperro the wheel is securely fenced off from the public and is chained and fastened in such a way that it cannot move.

I am sure this closure is as a direct result of the accident.

And here is the water wheel in Polperro which I mentioned earlier.

Picture is courtesy of Google this time.

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Oh yes, I almost forgot about money, the cost, hard economic times and Council cutbacks. :rolleyes:

I suppose a shortage of funds would soon put a stop to running this sort of non-essential item. :angry:

I'm surprised that no-one has commented in these environmentally aware times, that the wheel could easily produce useful power. According to the book "Water Power On Sheffield Rivers" most of the Sheffield wheels produced between 2 and 15 effective horse power. The Malin Bridge Wheel is quite large but of course it is an under-shot wheel and nothing like as efficient as an over-shot or breast-shot wheels. If we were to assume that it produces about 5 HP then it could generate possibly 3 kW. This would be enough to supply the average needs of a couple of small apartments.

Of course the bearing arrangements would have to be pretty high-tech to prevent the wheel shaking all the occupants to sleep each night.

The thing that would really put the kybosh on the scheme would be the previously mentioned elf and safety aspects.

The thing would have to securely fenced off to prevent some Herbert trying to stop it with his body after staggering out of one of the local pubs, this wouldn't fit in with the listed status.

In a TV programme starring wee pipe Strawbridge he built a small wooden wheel, fed from a small spring on his property that generated enough power to light his large house.

Perhaps when the oil runs out waterside properties will all have their own water-wheel/turbine and will attract a high premium as a result.

HD

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I'm surprised that no-one has commented in these environmentally aware times, that the wheel could easily produce useful power. According to the book "Water Power On Sheffield Rivers" most of the Sheffield wheels produced between 2 and 15 effective horse power. The Malin Bridge Wheel is quite large but of course it is an under-shot wheel and nothing like as efficient as an over-shot or breast-shot wheels. If we were to assume that it produces about 5 HP then it could generate possibly 3 kW. This would be enough to supply the average needs of a couple of small apartments.

Of course the bearing arrangements would have to be pretty high-tech to prevent the wheel shaking all the occupants to sleep each night.

The thing that would really put the kybosh on the scheme would be the previously mentioned elf and safety aspects.

The thing would have to securely fenced off to prevent some Herbert trying to stop it with his body after staggering out of one of the local pubs, this wouldn't fit in with the listed status.

In a TV programme starring Dick Strawbridge he built a small wooden wheel, fed from a small spring on his property that generated enough power to light his large house.

Perhaps when the oil runs out waterside properties will all have their own water-wheel/turbine and will attract a high premium as a result.

HD

So water wheels could go the same way as windmills.

At one time they just ground wheat and corn to make flour

But now they are expected to produce as much electricity as they possibly can.

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I'm surprised that no-one has commented in these environmentally aware times, that the wheel could easily produce useful power. According to the book "Water Power On Sheffield Rivers" most of the Sheffield wheels produced between 2 and 15 effective horse power. The Malin Bridge Wheel is quite large but of course it is an under-shot wheel and nothing like as efficient as an over-shot or breast-shot wheels. If we were to assume that it produces about 5 HP then it could generate possibly 3 kW. This would be enough to supply the average needs of a couple of small apartments.

Of course the bearing arrangements would have to be pretty high-tech to prevent the wheel shaking all the occupants to sleep each night.

The thing that would really put the kybosh on the scheme would be the previously mentioned elf and safety aspects.

The thing would have to securely fenced off to prevent some Herbert trying to stop it with his body after staggering out of one of the local pubs, this wouldn't fit in with the listed status.

In a TV programme starring Dick Strawbridge he built a small wooden wheel, fed from a small spring on his property that generated enough power to light his large house.

Perhaps when the oil runs out waterside properties will all have their own water-wheel/turbine and will attract a high premium as a result.

HD

It was mentioned on another thread a while ago, but the Council recently commissioned an investigation as to the potential for producing electricity on all the rivers in Sheffield,. The result was that only the Don had viable prospects for such projects.

I don't know if it's been done yet, but resulting from the report, the goyt at Kelham Island has been cleared, with the intention of installing a turbine.

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I don't know if it's been done yet, but resulting from the report, the goyt at Kelham Island has been cleared, with the intention of installing a turbine.

That would be great if they do that, it sounds like a really good idea.

It would add a little bit extra to that excellent local museum if you could see a working water turbine as well.

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I use to work voluntary for the countryside management project and occasionally we used to clean out the water wheel and the head and tail goit. When comet vacated the building the building was converted to flats etc, at roughly the same time the water wheel was restored in this time I have seen it in operation only twice which is a shame. Some times I can't see the point in restoring some thing like this and then not to be used so all can see.

In these days of promoting energy self sufficiency if the flow of water was good enough the wheel could have been utilsed to provide electricity for the new flats, a great opportunity missed on two parts.

sorry, didn't see the post from hilldweller above........................

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That would be great if they do that, it sounds like a really good idea.

It would add a little bit extra to that excellent local museum if you could see a working water turbine as well.

Here you go Dave! (Dated last December. Looks as if the plan's changed somewhat from the original)).

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Here you go Dave! (Dated last December. Looks as if the plan's changed somewhat from the original)).

That's fantastic Bayleaf.

I would be in favour of having something like that down at Kelham Island.

It's a sort of "old meets new", - a water wheel of old with an application to 21st century needs.

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