I'm fancying having a watermill with its own millpond as the setting for some of the scenes in my latest book. I can see lots online about restoring watermills and about historic watermills - which is all good so far as it goes. I've visited several different watermills down the years.
What I am looking for is a book by someone who has lived in a watermill, kept it running - the personal account. The same sort of thing as books about turning a derelict house into a home in Spain and the like.
I am looking for a feel of what it sounds like, feels like, smells like and what you'd enjoy and what you'd worry about and what can go wrong at 2am. Also things like does the mill pond have to be dredged or can you get it ecologically balanced so it looks after itself. So thought that a book written by someone who has lived in one would be the ideal, rather than a text book.
If there are folks on here with that kind of experience who have the time to share, that would be great.
Edited to add - I've visited several watermills in the UK and they had the mill and the millers house either as joined or adjacent buildings - so to me a watermill is a house plus mill, but as people have pointed out, you can't live in a watermill. So thought I'd better improve my question.
I'm looking for any sort from a corn grinding mill to a factory type or workshop using the water power to drive looms or workshop machinery rather than grindstones.
What I am looking for is a book by someone who has lived in a watermill, kept it running - the personal account. The same sort of thing as books about turning a derelict house into a home in Spain and the like.
I am looking for a feel of what it sounds like, feels like, smells like and what you'd enjoy and what you'd worry about and what can go wrong at 2am. Also things like does the mill pond have to be dredged or can you get it ecologically balanced so it looks after itself. So thought that a book written by someone who has lived in one would be the ideal, rather than a text book.
If there are folks on here with that kind of experience who have the time to share, that would be great.
Edited to add - I've visited several watermills in the UK and they had the mill and the millers house either as joined or adjacent buildings - so to me a watermill is a house plus mill, but as people have pointed out, you can't live in a watermill. So thought I'd better improve my question.
I'm looking for any sort from a corn grinding mill to a factory type or workshop using the water power to drive looms or workshop machinery rather than grindstones.
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