History Stories

The history of the watermill at Shelsley Walsh can be traced back to 1308, when it is mentioned in connection with the death of Henry Walsh.

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plotters

Certainly there was a watermill at Shelsley Walsh when Sir Richard Walsh pursued the Gunpowder plotters.

Local legend holds that the prisoners were locked in the cellars of the Court House at Shelsley Walsh, on their way from Holbeache House in Staffordshire to Worcester.

At that time the mill pool surrounded the Court House on three sides, almost forming a moat.

The oldest parts of the watermill still in existence date from around 1700, by which time the manor was owned by the Foley family.

In the middle of the 19th Century the manor was owned by Lord Ward, and then by Montagu C H Taylor.

Shelsley Water Mill

Montagu Taylor was to have far reaching influences on the watermill - at the end of the century he modernised the watermill, buying a cast iron waterwheel from Turtons of Kidderminster and using it to drive farm machinery, as well as the two pairs of millstones.

The mill pool was reduced in size and had an ornamental cascade added.

He also granted a 99 year lease to the Midland Automobile Club (MAC) to hold hillclimb events at Shelsley Walsh, the first event being held in 1905.

Then the fastest cars took well over a minute to climb the 1,000 yard hill - the current record is 22.51 seconds.

As a great enthusiast of new technology, Montagu Taylor would almost certainly be impressed by the progress.

Restoration

By 2005 the ownership of the manor had changed again, now being part of the Winnington estate.

Photo: John Charters

The MAC negotiated a renewal of the lease on the hillclimb course, and the renewed lease incorporated all the farm buildings at Shelsley Walsh, including the long abandoned watermill.

Most of the farm building could be converted to add facilities to the hillclimb course, but the mill was too small to be useful.

There was even a suggestion that it should be pulled down to save maintenance costs.

A group of members of the MAC volunteered to form a group to restore the mill, and so the Shelsley Water Mill Society was formed in 2006.

At that time the mill was so overgrown that most members didn't know it was there.

Millstone

The volunteers have done over 5,000 hours of work so far, and the mill is getting close to being in full working order.

The Shelsley Water Mill Society is registered as a charity, and the mill itself is now a Grade II listed building in its own right.

As well as restoring the mill to working order, the Society has also restored some of the farm machinery the waterwheel drove, and this will be on display when the mill is opened to the public.

The volunteers, all members of the MAC, meet every Tuesday and Thursday to work on the mill or the machinery.

The work has been recorded in a blog on the Society's own website, which also has a little bit of the history of the parish of Shelsley Walsh.