Tumbling Weir

It was a very wet morning here and I had decided to spend it picking up a parcel in Ottery St Mary and dropping a return one at Sidmouth.  As today's theme for Wide Wednesday is industrial I had to think at bit as there isn't much industry around me.  I then realised that this would give me an opportunity to revisit the Tumbling Weir factory in Ottery St Mary.  

I had walked past this area many times on walks as its situated alongside the river Otter and admired the old factory buildings.  It has recently however been developed, the factory building has been given a cleanup and a large number of house have been built behind in a similar style to the main buildings.  It doesn't look too bad although the charm of the decaying building has been lost. It will however provide a large number of apartments and housing which must be a good thing.  

The site of the building was originally a corn mill but was developed in 1788 to build a new manufactory for the carding and spinning of wool using recently invented water frame machinery and a new larger corn mill.  This changed the water requirements and a circular 'Tumbling Weir'  enabled the water level to be maintained  and discharged the overflow into the river via a tunnel.  An overhead aqueduct conveyed water from the mill basin to the water wheel inside the factory. At the time it was one of the world's first water powered factories.

The rain eased off in the afternoon and I managed to plant the elephants garlic on the allotment.