Churchill Forge Mill

Churchill Forge lies in the valley of the Ganlow Brook. In Mediaeval times it was dammed to provide a pond, from which a sluice led the water to turn the mill’s wheels. The earliest evidence of Churchill Forge is found in a charter dating from 1238 by which Robert de Hurcote granted Hugh Drugel "the whole land of Churchill, with the advowson of the church and the mill" on Hugh’s marriage with his sister Margery. Robert had paid twenty shillings to the Lord of Hagley for the settlement and a yearly rent to the Prior of Dudley for the mill. It changed hands at various times thereafter, and a blade mill and pool are mentioned in another account toward the end of the sixteenth century. The…

The forge was used from 1700 onwards to produce edged agricultural tools such as spades, shovels, forks, rakes, hoes, and cultivator blades; it also catered to local industries with special shovels (known as skippets) for the nearby salt workings at Droitwich, and pouring ladles for the Stourbridge glass industry and the Black Country metal refineries. The main wheel driving the forge machinery in the present building has a diameter of 17 feet and is 5 feet 3 inches wide. It is mounted on an 18 foot cast iron axle which carries two of the original flywheels that once operated trip hammers. There is now a spur wheel which meshes with a smaller one and in turn powers a flat belt that drives…