When I read the announcement of an impending
Open Day at Newhall Mill, Sutton Coldfield, I was intrigued. My parents
have lived in Sutton for 15 years or so and I thought I'd explored the area
fairly well, but I'd never heard of such a mill. I found its location in the
Birmingham A to Z (it was just a few yards from a road that I had often cycled
and driven along on the way to my parents' house) and Joyce and I turned up
for the Open Day.
It turned out to be a water mill in full working order but only for demonstration
- it is not used as a commercial mill nowadays, partly because its mill stream
had been diverted in the 1960s leaving it with insufficient flow, and now
it has to be assisted by a diesel engine. Although the rebuilt water wheel
still turns, the water has to be pumped back into the mill pool from the tail
race (the stream after the wheel). It's a visit not to be missed if you live
in the area and can catch an Open Day.
It begins with my first visit in 1999.
xxx
Links to other pages:
xxx
Above:
Long shot of the back of the Mill and mill pond
Right: The diesel engine powering the
mill
Above, left: The roof beams inside the stable building. Above, right: From inside a ground floor Mill window
The following is from a later visit,
in September 2001
Olympus OM-2n, Miranda
28 - 70mm zoom lens, Fujicolor NPS film
There have been quite a few changes since last year, mostly involving the stable buildings which have been completely cleared out and converted to a tea shop, very modern WCs, and a small museum. The path has been smoothed out too.
The lower right picture of the garden shows that the old tree has been cut down to a stump