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The Overshot wheel is the most profficient of the watermills, it does however require a head of water from a higher point in order
to power the wheel from above. Unlike the undershot wheel - which relies on the current to push the paddles & thus turn the
wheel - the overshot wheel has troughs or buckets which fill up one by one & it is the weight of the falling water
which actually turns the wheel.
The mill need not be built actually alongside the stream as the water can be diverted via a
channel or conduit from quite a distance provided there is sufficient gradient to enable the flow.
The mill featured here
also has a small millpool directly behind the mill which stores sufficient water to run the mill if the supplying stream is
a little slow in times of drought.
The sluicegate can be seen and also a bypass sluice is fitted as this helps to control the flow
of water in times of heavy rain.
This would be a small village mill
where locals would take their corn to be ground into flour.
A pair
of pigs can be seen below the bypass sluice & these would be another source of income for the miller
