At a Delco mill, they’re rebuilding a waterwheel like what the ancient Romans had

Major construction projects are often noisy — a collective din of circular saws, air compressors, and nail guns.

But at the Newlin Grist Mill, which sits beside the west branch of Chester Creek in Glen Mills, Delaware County, the sounds inside the old stone walls were softer: wooden mallets tapping simple chisels and century-old handsaws cutting back and forth into Missouri white oak.

A duo of artisan carpenters were there on a recent weekday, amid the unique tools and sawdust, working to restore the mill’s symmetrical, wooden waterwheel, a simple piece of technology that’s as old as recorded time.

At the Newlin Grist Mill, the waterwheel was used to grind different types of grain — like maize, wheat, and barley — into flour. It’s not a historic site that’s frozen in time, either, and that’s why they’re building a new waterwheel.

“We’re doing it because it’s always been done here. It’s been an operating grist mill for 300 of the last 320 years,” said Tony Shahan, the mill’s executive director. “As most ideas like this happen, we decided one day, over a beer, that it would be cool to rebuild the waterwheel like they did in the 18th century.”

Though the design has evolved over centuries, the basic principle behind the waterwheel — using flowing water to generate force — remains largely unchanged. At the grist mill in Glen Mills, and at others across the world, the rotation of the wheel turns a system of gears that ultimately drive massive stones, slowly grinding grain into flour.

“There’s almost nothing here, besides some of the gear designs, that Vitruvius (a Roman architect) wasn’t writing about in the first century AD when he wrote the first description of a vertical waterwheel,” said Shahan, inside the grain house.

Shahan says waterwheels typically last about 25 years, and the new one they’re building today will be the third since 1960. The last wheel was taken out of service in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic and a one-two punch of record-breaking floods delayed the project for years.

Reoccurring flooding is getting worse, Shahan said, and forcing Newlin Grist Mill to raise its visitors center, a converted station on the former Octorara branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

“We have to have water, and to make that waterwheel work, we actually have to be set up in a flood plain,” Shahan said. “That means that we’re gonna get floods.”

The wheel will cost approximately $40,000 and is being funded mostly by donations. It’s expected to be completed by midsummer.

The bulk of the work is being done by volunteers, like carpenter Eva Mergen and woodworker Michael Knight, of Glen Mills, a cabinetmaker’s son who makes his own custom furniture.

“I’ve been woodworking since I was about 4 years old,” Knight said.

Shahan and his staff also built an authentic millwright shop, where Mergen, Knight, and other volunteers work. It’s open to the public during visits.

“We didn’t just want to hide the wheel away and unveil it to the public one day,” Shahan said. “This is all part of the history here.”

The Newlin Grist Mill encompasses 160 acres and is located at 219 Cheyney Road in Glen Mills. To donate to the project or for more information, visit https://newlingristmill.org/