Water Wheel Pit is a Grade II listed building in the County Durham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 26 June 1987. Water wheel pit.
Water Wheel Pit
- WRENN ID
- lapsed-pilaster-claret
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- County Durham
- Constituency
- Bishop Auckland MP: Dr Sam Rushworth (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 26 June 1987
- Type
- Water wheel pit
- Address
- Water Wheel Pit, Forest and Frith
- OS grid reference
- NY 778 326
- Coordinates
- 54.68805, -2.34512
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The water wheel pit is a lead mill structure, likely built in the mid-19th century for the London Lead Company. It is constructed of rubble with a stony render and has no roof. The building has a rectangular plan measuring approximately 120 meters long and 3.5 meters wide, with the long walls about one meter thick and around six meters high inside. The long east wall is flat-topped and features a square beam approximately 15 centimeters across at the center of the east face. The west wall is damaged in the center but is otherwise also flat-topped. The thinner north wall reaches full height but has a dislodged top beam, while the south wall is damaged. Inside, there is a deep pit, and central uprights measuring about 30 centimeters square are set into the side walls, which formerly supported the wheel axle.
Local climate
Water Wheel Pit sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,090 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 87% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 73% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 77 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 55 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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