A little about us
Shelsley Water Mill Society members are known as the Dibnahs. The Society has restored the mill to a working condition for use as a visitor attraction and educational resource, as well as providing active conservation of wildlife habitat.
HOW WE GOT HERE
- 2005: A new lease granted to the Midland Auto Club, to continue hillclimb racing at Shelsley Walsh.
- No clear use for the water mill buildings - suggestion that they should be demolished.
- Martyn Herridge suggests that MAC members can restore the mill to working order.
- Meeting of members called.
- By August 2006 a regular working meeting of members on Tuesdays established.
What we did.
So what can eight gentlemen of pensionable age achieve? With the support of their partners, of course.
Early efforts concentrated on clearing the site and making sure that the building was safe. Very early in the proceedings we borrowed acroprops from local builder John Stinton to shore up the floor in the mill. Damp penetrating the brickwork had rotted off the ends of the floor joists and prompt action was needed. Mostly, however, we left the interior of the mill alone at that stage, and set our sites on getting the waterwheel going.
Before we had any chance of getting the wheel to turn under water power we had to have some way of letting the water get away. The channel that takes water away from the waterwheel is called the tailrace and Shelsley Water Mill didn't have one anymore.
Beginnings: restoring the tailrace.
Tailrace, what tailrace?
Continuing Success
Means support! We need you to support us. The Society is a registered charity and depended entirely on donations to carry out the restoration of Shelsley Watermill and still needs to fund the on-going maintenance of the mill.
The majority of the work on the mill is being done by a dedicated team of unpaid volunteers but there are some tasks that we cannot undertake ourselves and we have to pay to have done.
From time to time we make appeals for donations in kind and we have been lucky to have received building materials both new and recovered. Other donors have given the Society free use of equipment, either at the mill or at industrial sites. We are grateful for all these donations and would like to thank all our donors.
Mill history
A quick glance at the fascinating history of Shelsley Water Mill.
Copyright ©️ 2025
Registered charity no. 1119771
Credits:
Thanks to all those who contributed, both text and illustrations.