Hawarden Mill

Just outside the walls of Hawarden Park, Flintshire - once the home of William Ewart Gladstone, Grand Old Man of British politics - a public footpath runs along the top of the remains of a mill pond dam. This was fed by Broughton Brook, which runs under the footpath.

Released via sluice gates, the dammed water was channelled through a wooden trough to power the overshot wheel of Hawarden Mill, built in 1767 for Sir John Glynne. The corn mill was abandoned by the 1940s. Although the buildings have largely collapsed, the waterwheel survives, and the principal drive and gears, and some grinding stones, still lie scattered about.