BATEMANS - MILL HOUSE & GENERATOR

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Park Watermill, which stands by the River Dudwell, is located within the grounds of Batemans at Burwash, (TQ 670237) the home of Rudyard Kipling from 1902 to 1936.  Two watermills were built at Burwash between 1246 and 1248, and in 1619, the Pelham family purchased Park House and Park House Watermill.

In 1903 Rudyard Kipling decided to convert the Mill House to produce electricity for Batemans.  to this end the water wheel was taken out and a survey completed to enable a Chelmsford based company to specify a suitable hydro electric installation sufficient to generate and supply electricity to the main rooms in the house.

Batemans - Mill House

The present mill dates from about 1750 when it was operated by John Skinner. It was last worked by the brothers Richardson in 1902. Rudyard Kipling who purchased Batemans and Park Mill in the same year, removed the waterwheel and installed a turbine in 1903. The turbine drove a generator and provided Batemans with electricity for 25 years. The mill features in a number of Kipling’s Sussex stories including ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ and ‘Below the Mill Dam’.

Most of the machinery still exists in the mill. The pit wheel, wallower, great spur wheel and stone nuts, together with the tentering arrangement can be seen on entering the mill at ground floor level. Also on the ground floor are facilities to control the operation of the mill. Near the rear door, the miller can adjust the gap between the stones and control the speed of the waterwheel by regulating the flow of water.

The overshot waterwheel is set in motion by raising a gate in the pentrough, which allows water from the mill pond to flow through the pentrough into the individual buckets in the wheel, providing power to operate the mill.  On the stone floor three pairs of stone can be seen. The Wire Machine for dressing meal and a Smutter for cleaning grain are no longer in the mill. There is a Winnower, which is no longer used and a Hand Quern, which visitors can use to try their hand at milling.

The mill can normally be seen grinding on Saturday afternoons. Batemans together with Park Watermill is owned by the National Trust, and there is a combined admission charge currently £5.50 per person.

The brick built outbuilding in the picture below was converted to house a simple small generator.  A concrete foundation was poured in one corner of the building on which a generator could be mounted, so as to be belt driven from a water turbine.

 

Batemans - Generator Outbuilding

 

Between 1968-75, the building, which had fallen into a sad state of disrepair, was restored along with the turbine. This building is included on a Monument Protection Programme commissioned in 1995 by English Heritage, along with The Old Steam House, generating works at Herstmonceux, Sussex.  There are remarkable parallels between the Baron de Roemer and Rudyard Kipling.  Both had a fascination for automobiles and electricity.  Where Kipling was content to harness the forces of nature to provide light to his home, the Baron went further and generated electricity supplies to a whole village.  Remarkably, these two buildings are the only surviving examples of early electricity generation in Sussex.  The Herstmonceux building is thought to be the only surviving example of electricity distribution generation in Europe. 

 

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Batemans - Burwash, East Sussex Tel: (01435) 882302 Fax: (01435) 882811

Opening times: 23rd March - 29th September. Closed Thursdays and Fridays except Good Friday. 11.00 am - 5.30 pm last entry 4.30 pm.

 

LINKS:

Battle Abbey
Battle Museum of Local History
Batemans
Bexhill Museum
Bexhill Museum of Costume & Social History
Bodiam Castle
Buckleys Yesterdays World
Carr Taylor Vineyards
Clambers
De La Warr Pavilion
Farmworld
Great Dixter
Hastings Castle
Hastings Fishermen's Museum
Hastings Museum & Art Gallery
Herstmonceux Castle
Kent & East Sussex Railway
Merriments Gardens
Old Town Hall Museum
Pashley Manor Gardens
Pevensey Castle
Rye Art Gallery
Rye Audio Walks
Rye Castle Museum
Rye Story
Underwater World - Hastings
Sedlescombe Vineyards
Shipwreck Heritage Centre
Smugglers Adventure
White Rock Theatre
Winchelsea Court Hall Museum

 

 

Herstmonceux Electricity Generating Works Circa. 1900 - 1936   Links:

 

Introduction  |  Instructions  |  ISBN  |  Batteries  |  Boiler Room   |  Floor Plan  |  

 

Industrial Revolution  |   Lime Park  |  Machinery  |  Map  |  Power House  

 

Public Supply  |  Roof Construction  |  Rural SupplySussex Express 1913  |  Conclusion

 

Archaeology South East   |   East Sussex CC  |  English HeritageSIAS

 

 

 

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