The mill with two wheels and two bodies

Nether Alderley Mill is a 16th-century watermill located on Congleton Road in Cheshire. It is a unique example of a triple overshot waterwheel system where water passes from an upper wheel to a lower one. It effectively functions as two distinct mills with its own machinery, and two of those wheels are still in working order today.

The mill has been in use since at least 1391. The Stanley family took ownership in the late 1500s, and some of the late-16th century stonework survives in the basement. By the mid-18th century, the mill was enlarged to its current size and layout, including the construction of new tunnels with the date 1746 inscribed inside. Much of the stonework and timbers from the earlier mill were reused in this expansion.

The architecture is constructed from buff-pink ashlar sandstone with a roof weighing about 200 tons supported by an Elizabethan oak frame. The rear wall of the mill forms the dam for the lake supplying the water for the mill, which also acts as a moat for Alderley Old Hall.

After closing in about 1939 and becoming derelict, the National Trust took ownership in 1950. They restored the mill into working order between 1967 and 1970. Visitors can still see the cast-iron hurst frame and gearing installed in the 1870s. It remains one of only four virtually complete corn mills in Cheshire.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons