Inspiration: A Small Watermill

Last weekend we visited Batemans - which was the home of Rudyard Kipling, and is now a National Trust property. In the grounds was a small watermill, which struck me as being an ideal prototype for a model.

The building is typically Sussex/Kent in style, wooden clap-board with a tiled roof. The left hand end is presumably the miller's cottage, the mill itself is to the right of the red tree, starting with the doorway that is just visible behind the tree.

Up the path to the right of the mill the mill pond can be seen, a surprisingly small one. The leat or head-race ran some way upstream before joining the stream, but the tail race joined the stream about 50 yards in front of the building.

And looking at the mill from the same spot it can be seen how it is built into the bank that dams the pond, and that the end wall is black rather than painted white - I presume tarred against the damp.

The over-shot wheel; this is a little narrower than the original due to the pipes.

From the front of the building the wheel and sluice can be seen. The pipes were added in the early 20th century to feed the turbine - which is clearly visible. A shaft from the centre of the turbine enters the brick hut to the right, where via a wheel and leather belt, drove a generator. A cable ran to half a ton of batteries in an outhouse by the main house,  allowing ten 60w bulbs to run for 4 hours!