page_title: Medway watermills (lower tributaries)
section_title: Thurnham Mill.
hierarchical_section_title: Medway watermills (lower tributaries) / River Len / Thurnham Mill.
caption_attribution_description: Thurnham Mill, Otham Lane
context_page_description: The River Medway and its tributaries and sub-tributaries have been used for more than 1,150 years as a source of power. There are over two hundred sites where the use of water power is known.
  Many different processes were performed by the use of water power:- corn milling, fulling, paper making, iron smelting, pumping water, making gunpowder, vegetable-oil extraction, and electricity generation.
  Today, there is just one watermill working for trade. Those that remain have mostly been converted. Such conversions include a garage, dwellings, restaurants, museums and a wedding venue. Some watermills are mere derelict shells, lower walls or lesser remains. Of the majority, there is nothing to be seen.
  A large number of tributaries feed into the River Medway. The tributaries that powered watermills will be described in the order that they feed in. The mills are described in order from source to mouth. Left bank and right bank are referred to as though the reader is facing downstream.
context_section_description: This mill was built by the Cage family in the late 1820s on a piece of land called Byfrance, part of the Milgate estate. The tail race from Ballard's Mill was extended some 200 yards (180 m) to get sufficient height to drive an overshot waterwheel of 9 feet (2.74 m) diameter and 10 feet (3.05 m) wide. The waterwheel was carried on a cast iron axle and drove a 7 feet (2.13 m) diameter cast iron pit wheel with wooden cogs. That drove the wallower on the upright shaft, then a 6 feet (1.83 m) diameter cast iron great spur wheel drove four pairs of millstones. There were two pairs of French burr stones and two pairs of Peak stones. One pair of each type was 4 feet (1.22 m) diameter and the other pair of each type was 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) diameter. At the top of the upright shaft was a 5 feet (1.52 m) diameter cast iron crown wheel. The Blinkhorn family had a long association as millers at the mill, John Blinkhorn being the miller in 1825. J Blinkhorn was the miller in 1852 and John Blinkhorn in 1874. A new waterwheel was fitted after World War I. Marshall Bros were the millers 1930 - 1934. The mill was working until World War II  when the axle to the waterwheel broke. Most of the machinery was then scrapped. The mill was sold for house conversion in 1986, at that time only the frame of the waterwheel and pit wheel survived, all other machinery having been removed.
caption: Thurnham Mill reflected in the water.
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