[2] There was a water mill in Leek by the mid-12th century, owned at that time by Ranulf de Gernon, 4th Earl of Chester.

His grandson Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester in the early 1220s gave the mill to Dieulacres Abbey.

[1][6] Dr Cyril Boucher, an expert on early engineers, studied the mill in detail in the 1960s, and in 1968 described it in his biography of Brindley.

There is an undershot waterwheel, diameter 16 feet (4.9 m), on the north side of the building; near to it are the weir, millpond, leats and sluice gates whereby water is directed away from the river.

The roof rafters are supported by a king post structure resting on a curved tie beam.