Bitofapilchard
Mill Stream....
...and part of the River Stour that feeds the water mill at Bourton Mill, Dorset.
Bourton lies on the River Stour which passes through the historic Bourton Mill, once home to the second largest water wheel (60ft in diameter) in Britain.
The mill, which is mentioned in the Domesday book, has had many incarnations. As a linen mill it processed flax and supplied canvas to the Royal Navy but when industry declined it was developed into a foundry with a blast furnace and was one of the first places to make the new threshing machines in the West of England. It went on to build boilers, steam lorries and gas engines as well as gaining a reputation as a builder of water wheels.
During the First World War Mills Bombs were produced here in vast quantities. After the Gasper dam burst upriver in the summer of 1917, much of the machinery was washed from the factory and it took a number of years for industry to re-start on the site. When it did return in 1933 the factory entered its final phase as a dried milk processing plant and this continued up until its closure in 1998.
It is now derelict with many of the oldest buildings in a state of collapse.
Bourton lies on the River Stour which passes through the historic Bourton Mill, once home to the second largest water wheel (60ft in diameter) in Britain.
The mill, which is mentioned in the Domesday book, has had many incarnations. As a linen mill it processed flax and supplied canvas to the Royal Navy but when industry declined it was developed into a foundry with a blast furnace and was one of the first places to make the new threshing machines in the West of England. It went on to build boilers, steam lorries and gas engines as well as gaining a reputation as a builder of water wheels.
During the First World War Mills Bombs were produced here in vast quantities. After the Gasper dam burst upriver in the summer of 1917, much of the machinery was washed from the factory and it took a number of years for industry to re-start on the site. When it did return in 1933 the factory entered its final phase as a dried milk processing plant and this continued up until its closure in 1998.
It is now derelict with many of the oldest buildings in a state of collapse.
Mill Stream....
...and part of the River Stour that feeds the water mill at Bourton Mill, Dorset.
Bourton lies on the River Stour which passes through the historic Bourton Mill, once home to the second largest water wheel (60ft in diameter) in Britain.
The mill, which is mentioned in the Domesday book, has had many incarnations. As a linen mill it processed flax and supplied canvas to the Royal Navy but when industry declined it was developed into a foundry with a blast furnace and was one of the first places to make the new threshing machines in the West of England. It went on to build boilers, steam lorries and gas engines as well as gaining a reputation as a builder of water wheels.
During the First World War Mills Bombs were produced here in vast quantities. After the Gasper dam burst upriver in the summer of 1917, much of the machinery was washed from the factory and it took a number of years for industry to re-start on the site. When it did return in 1933 the factory entered its final phase as a dried milk processing plant and this continued up until its closure in 1998.
It is now derelict with many of the oldest buildings in a state of collapse.
Bourton lies on the River Stour which passes through the historic Bourton Mill, once home to the second largest water wheel (60ft in diameter) in Britain.
The mill, which is mentioned in the Domesday book, has had many incarnations. As a linen mill it processed flax and supplied canvas to the Royal Navy but when industry declined it was developed into a foundry with a blast furnace and was one of the first places to make the new threshing machines in the West of England. It went on to build boilers, steam lorries and gas engines as well as gaining a reputation as a builder of water wheels.
During the First World War Mills Bombs were produced here in vast quantities. After the Gasper dam burst upriver in the summer of 1917, much of the machinery was washed from the factory and it took a number of years for industry to re-start on the site. When it did return in 1933 the factory entered its final phase as a dried milk processing plant and this continued up until its closure in 1998.
It is now derelict with many of the oldest buildings in a state of collapse.