[4] A map, drawn by military engineer Lewis Petit des Etans, dating from 1715 shows a mill at this site.

The volume of water in the lade in October of that year was 3,180 cubic feet, and the calculations suggested that, if properly harnessed, this would product the equivalent of a 60-horsepower steam engine.

This allowed the water wheel to focus its power on sifting, dressing and grinding oats until 1953, when business started to slow.

The demand for oatmeal was falling with the rise in popularity of British-grown wheat for bread, as well as the competition from larger, more modern, producers, who could perform the same procedure at reduced cost and more efficiently.

[4] During the late 1980s and through the 1990s, it produced mainly wheat flour for a local bakery, and along with the building's accommodation of new craft workshops and a tearoom, it became a tourist attraction.