Colyton

Gave a talk today about the water mills of the Coly. In this picture there are 3, if not 4 of the 5 great watermills that were once on this small river. The river powered a paper mill, a saw mill, a grist mill, a corn mill, a flour mill and a tannery., as well as sundry smaller operations. The tannery is still in existence and is still using its water wheel to power the machinery to crush oak bark and tan hides. There has been a tannery on the site since Roman times.
The fact that this rather small river could run these huge mills and power all these different operations (including, in the latter years, providing Colyton with electrc light) and still remain undiminished is a source of great wonder to me and should perhaps be a lesson to today's power hungry Britain. After all, it can't be said that we are short of water!