Horse mill

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A horse-mill is a mill that uses a horse as the power source. Any milling process can be powered in this way, but the most frequent use of animal power in horse-mills was for grinding grain and pumping water. Other animals used for powering mills include dogs, donkeys and oxen. These are all forms of animal engines. Man, can also be considered to be an animal, and engines powered by man include treadwheels.

Sometimes a horse mill was used in conjunction with a watermill or a windmill.

In Antwerp, Belgium, the Brouwers Huis Museum (Brewers House museum) is a good example of horse powered pumping machinery, the building dating from the C16th and the original wooden machinery was replaced in cast iron in the mid C19th, but retaining the original layout.

Contents

[edit] Places where horse-mills are known to have existed, or can be found.

[edit] United Kingdom

[edit] Bedfordshire

  • Eversholt - a horse engine, now preserved at Billing Mill.
  • Kensworth - a donkey wheel from Nash Farm is preserved in Luton museum and Art Gallery. There was also another donkey wheel at Chuch End Farm.
  • Woburn - a horse driven corn mill.

[edit] Berkshire

  • Woolley Park - a horse driven corn mill.

[edit] Buckinghamshire

[edit] Cornwall

  • Gwennap - a horse whim for raising ore.
  • Newquay - a horse gear for driving a threshing machine is preserved at the Dairyland museum.

[edit] Cumberland

[edit] Derbyshire

  • Castleton - a horse powered ore crusher stood at NGR SK 135835.

[edit] Devonshire

  • Scorlinch, Clyst St. Lawrence - a horse engine.
  • Weyland, Tedburn St. Mary - a horse powered mill, extant in the 1920's.

[edit] Durham

[edit] Hampshire

[edit] Hertfordshire

[edit] Isle of Wight

[edit] Kent

  • Chilham Castle - a horse wheel driving pumps.
  • West Kingsdown - a horse whim, now preserved at Singleton, Sussex (q.v.).

[edit] London

  • A horse powered pumping engine in the Chiswell Street brewery.

[edit] Norfolk

Norwich

  • Catton mill - a horse and wind mill.
  • Earlham Hall - a horse mill

Heigham - in a Tannery


[edit] Northumberland

  • Berwick Hill. - a horse gin built in 1814. Now preserved at Beamish Museum.

[edit] Nottinghamshire

  • Wollaton Hall - a horse gin built at Langton Colliery in 1844 and later used at Pinxton Colliery.

[edit] Oxfordshire

  • Greys Court, Rotherfield Greys. - a National Trust property, with a donkey wheel.
  • Great Tew - a horse powered corn mill.

[edit] Suffolk

[edit] Surrey

  • Painshill - a horse-wheel used for raising water. In use from 1770 to the 1830's.

[edit] Sussex

[edit] Wiltshire

  • Broad Hinton - a donkey wheel, demolished in 1908.
  • Tidworth - a horse-driven pump, working in the 1930's.

[edit] Worcestershire

[edit] Yorkshire

[edit] Scotland

 The Horse-mill at Wester Kittochside farm near Glasgow
The Horse-mill at Wester Kittochside farm near Glasgow

[edit] Wales

[edit] Channel Islands

Circular horse-drawn apple crusher (tou d'preinseu) at The Elms, Jersey - a property of the National Trust for Jersey.
Circular horse-drawn apple crusher (tou d'preinseu) at The Elms, Jersey - a property of the National Trust for Jersey.

[edit] United States

[edit] Indiana

[edit] Gallery

[edit] References

  • Animal Powered Machines, J. Kenneth Major. Shire Album 128 - Shire Publications 1985. ISBN 0-85263-710-1
  • Water-mills windmills and horse-mills of South Africa, James Walton. C Struik Publishers, 1974. ISBN 0-86977-040-3

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
In other languages