Worsbrough Mill

A Worsbrough Mill was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 and the first Curator, [Rob Shorland-Ball – 1975 to 1979] researched the history and states that a "tenuous but continuous documentary record can be traced from then to 1625 which is the likely date for the building of the existing Old Mill. Whether the pre-1625 mill(s) were on the same site is not known. However, a mill was a very important part of the feudal pattern of life and settlement and thus tended to remain on the same site if that site was a satisfactory one".

The oldest building (the Old Mill) is a two-storey watermill with massive lintels over the doors; it is operational and mills a small amount of grain. There is some doubt over the date of construction; there are no dates on or in the buildings (with one exception) but 1625 has been stated (by Shorland-Ball) to be "acceptably representative". The New Mill was originally steam-driven and contained a Watt-type beam engine which was scrapped in 1922. During the restoration of the mill buildings in the 1960s and early 1970s, a 1911 model Hornsby hot bulb oil engine originally from Sykehouse Windmill was installed by Geoff Hatfield (Millwright). The engine still functions, but is not linked to…