Acorn Bank Garden and Waterwheel

 I discovered yesterday, after 126 blog posts, that if I double-click on any photo it brings it up to full screen size and there is a little set of thumbnail pics from each post underneath it...what a difference it makes when looking at scenery such as in yesterday's Lake District photographs! Who says Old Dogs can't learn new tricks? If I'm unaware of any other very basic tools here will some-one please let me know?

After visiting Long Meg(in 2008)and having lunch in nearby Melmerby, Unka Tom suggested we call in at Acorn Bank Garden, a National Trust property with it's own very old waterwheel. The gardens around the beautiful house are stunning and the waterwheel over the rushing stream is just fascinating. This is the back of the house and it's front face...note the differences?

The house appeared to be still occupied so we couldn't go in but the walled gardens are the part owned by the National Trust so please enjoy......

 A Blakeney Red pear on a very old tree(above) and a profusion of herbs which were all labelled and well-tended...

A 1778 water butt I do believe...

 Two people being silly on their way to the mill....

...we walked through the woods to the waterwheel next, it's still undergoing restoration but was really interesting as well as being in a lovely setting...the stream is diverted and water runs along this wooden channel(called the race) into the building where the huge wheel is ...it was very hard to photograph as it's so large...

The water would run into the large wheel downstairs and then as it turned it also turned a series of cogs leading to the upper part of the building where they would turn large grindstones such as the ones in the top-left hand corner of the last photo. This is the back of the mill with it's doors at different heights for ease of loading the wagons collecting the flour.

I'm not sure exactly what grains were grown in these parts, probably wheat, barley, oats and rye and there is another watermill in Cumbria at Little Salkeld(1745) which grinds it's own organic grains and sells the flour and breads all over the UK.

I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into the past.

Have a great day,
love, Sue
xxx