Felin Wen Tide Mill

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The monument consists of a well preserved example of an early tidemill, a type of watermill powered by retaining seawater at high tide and then releasing it at low tide via the water wheel. The tide was an important source of power for grinding corn from the early modern period until well into the industrial revolution, used in islands and peninsulas with insufficient drainage for conventional watermills. In Anglesey, tide mills were of importance to the local economy from the sixteenth century. Felin Wen may originate from this time, but the first documentary reference to it is in 1724 on a plan of the Bodorgan Estate. The estate arranged substantial reconstruction in 1829. It appears to have been operated by tenants until it closed in about 1880 and includes a stone dam across the tidal creek, with a rock-cut wheel race and mill platform at its south-east end, and east of these a short stone causeway and the probable site of a corn drying kiln. The mill site demonstrates clearly the technology of tidal power in this period and is one of the best such examples in Wales.

The monument is of national importance as a rare and well preserved example of an early tide mill site and for its potential to enhance our knowledge of 16th to 19th century industrial practices. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structure itself may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.