Page 12 - HB- Batchley Valley

Redditch Heritage Batchley Valley

Forge Mill

Forge Mill is unique in the valley in that it is still in working order. Last used
commercially as a needle scouring mill in 1958, it was maintained for some time by
volunteers before being converted into a working museum. With the exception of the
western end of the pond the watercourses are still much as they were in the early 19th
century when a new 14ft diameter water wheel was installed. The size of the wheel and
the limited head of water required the tailrace to leave the wheel chamber below surface
level in a tunnel so as to give, as far as possible, unimpeded flow. This was also the case
at the now demolished Old Mill.

At Forge Mill the tunnel discharges into a perfectly straight channel which cuts across
several monastic ditches in the valley floor. Batchley Brook, at this stage essentially an
overflow from the Forge Mill pond, augmented by the "Red Ditch", rejoins the tailrace
about 350 yards downstream, having first crossed it by means of an aqueduct.

The original course of Batchley Brook turned right, just short of the Arrow, and followed
a winding course across the fields, which can still be traced. In 1828 a short cut was
made into the Arrow to allow water from the brook to augment the flow to Beoley Paper
Mill.

At the present confluence both streams are typically, flowing in artificial channels. Only
four miles away in a direct line, but just out of sight over the crest of the hill is Cocks
Croft.
In 1956 the Beoley floodgates, three hundred yards below the confluence of the two
streams, were destroyed by a flood, and the level of the Arrow was lowered by several
feet. The dam was not completely reconstructed and as a result the Arrow no longer
supplied the Beoley paper mill pond downstream. However the surviving part of the
structure was made safe and now forms an attractive feature known as five Tunnels.

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