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New England - Grist Water Mill  The Water Mill: When they founded a new town, the pioneers usually chose the height, safe ground that offered the best protection from floods, marauding Indians and dangerous beasts.. After a few decades of farming out the high land, the folks began to consider the possibilities of turning to manufacturing.. Yankee engineering had developed ways of getting tremendous amounts of power from water wheels. These had twice the efficiency of European undershot and breast wheels, and so water mills began to appear along the rivers and streams on New England.. Soon other buildings were built near the mills and the 'Mill Complex' to shape. As you travel, watch for names of towns like... Milton, Millbrook, Milford, and Millwood.. These hamlets quickly grew into villages with the mill at the center.   Models come in railroad scales of HO, N, & Z. Make complete towns and villages. Click for more info on Watermills. This Mill is the Wright Grist Mill and is a working mill on exhibit at Old Sturbridge, Mass.. It has a 20 foot undershot water wheel that is turned by water flowing under the road. The entire Mill was carefully moved from Hebron Connecticut...A conversational miller is on hand to explain the intricacies of his profession.

At a dam on the Squannacook River in Townsend Harbor, Massachusetts, is Spaulding's Grist Mill, built about 1840. Its ancient wooden and wrought-iron machinery is still in fine condition.

On the grounds of Longfellow's Wayside Inn a stone grist mill has been built on 18th-century lines. It is powered by an overshot water wheel. Unbleached flour and cereal are ground between old circular burr stones and sold to interested visitors.

New England has been a manufacturing region since the early days when mills, foundries, and small factories flourished in the seventeenth century. Mill dams along streams and rivers are still numerous, marking the site of once thriving manufacturing plants. Many of these early factories have vanished with time, but it is still possible to see how they once looked. The Saugus Ironworks, first in America, has been reconstructed on its original site, just as it appeared in the 1640's. The first cotton thread mill in America is still standing in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and may.be visited. We show these and a handful of others, forerunners of the factories that, alas, do little to beautify the New England scene today. But they make a mighty contribution to the economy, and one has only to visit Bridgeport or Worcester to appreciate the fact.

What People Say.

Just FYI and FWIW (for what it's worth) the Mill that the Wheel was moved from still exists on route 66 in Hebrom at the bottom of the hill going west from the center of town. It's set back just off the road and Painted Barn Red as is the house on the same property. If you are interested I might be able to grab you a picture or 2 in the future. I grew up one town away and went to church with the previous owner a Ms. Helen Brink. I'm not sure of her status or the current owner of the property but I live a few towns away now but my insurance agent is very close to it (1/2 mile or less) and as I have business with him soon I'll be going to Hebron. James