Jump to content

Shepherd Wheel restoration - update


Bayleaf

Recommended Posts

The project to restore Shepherd Wheel is slowly going ahead. The dam is in a poor state and will no longer hold water. As part of the restoration the build-up of silt will be removed and the dam lined with a water-retaining material, and the vegetation round the edge controlled to prevent a repeat of the damage.

The external appearance of the building will be restored, and the internal machinery restored to full working order, so visitors can see how the wheel functioned.

Once restored, it will be open to the public for demonstrations at regular intervals at weekends and for school visits by request during the week. To this end there will be an activities space and shelter, and someone will be employed to co-ordinate these activities.

The cost is substantial;

Dam and Millpond £504,000

Building refurb. £156,000

Wheel & machinery repairs £57,000

Amenity block & shelter £90,000

External work and landscaping £27,000

Additional surveys £43,000

Training and educational items £123,000

Total £1,000,000

Applications have been made to national bodies for funding, but this will have to be matched by local donations and fund-raising.

Shepherd Wheel is a rare survivor of our early industrial history, and a scheduled monument of national significance, and deserves to be preserved as a ‘working museum’.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ta Muchly, knew I'd seen it somewhere, just couldn't remember where.

I often wonder how many members use the search option on this site?

just entered 'shepherd wheel' into search and this came up .. the Result

But usually when I enter a word/topic into search it comes up with loads of irrelevant stuff, but far more often I get no results at all.

Steve :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are a few more, from different periods.

Early 1900's

Wheel and pentrough when working and as now

View of dam when it held water

Last winter

(Apologies if some are a bit blurry, scanned from leaflet)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great News! The Heritage Lottery Fund have come up with a grant of £500,000! All we have to do now is find the rest. The City Council has put its hand in its pocket to the tune of £100,000, and other funding is lining up, so things are looking good!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7g5QVXor7OA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a child I watched the mill dam and wheel restored, the dam was dredged and the wheel restored whilst we played football on the grass opposite or sledged / grass sledged down the hills opposite, this must have been in the late 60s, early 70s, once complete the wheel turning was a great time of excitement and working days were restored, with demonstrators working on the original grindstones.

It will be great to see it working again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been down here with the kids from my work today. Must say it was very exciting to be able to show them what little history we have left in the area. Cannot wait for it to be fully restored, it is already looking great!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to bring things up to date, the Wheel reopens to the public this Saturday, 29th March. It will be open at weekends and Bank Holidays, 10 til 4. A member of SIMT will be on site to operate the wheel (water levels permitting). I'll have to get confirmation, but I think the wheel will operate for 10 or 15 minutes on the hour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...