The tree-lined dam above Olive Mill is one of the most beautiful water power features in the Loxley valley.
It draws its water from the huge five-bay weir which you can see below the footpath just a bit further up the valley, with the water of the River Loxley thundering over it.
Alongside the weir is the old shuttle mechanism that controlled the flow of water into the “head goit” that channelled the water to the dam – the head goit runs immediately alongside the footpath.
The dam fed its water into the deep pit containing two water wheels that were collectively known as Olive Wheel.
This “double water wheel” arrangement meant that two wheels sat side-by-side in the same wheel pit, capable of driving separate gearing systems in the mill buildings to either side.
The “Water Power on the Sheffield Rivers” book dates the first wheels on the site to between 1714 and 1716. Over succeeding centuries, the Olive Wheel buildings were home to various industrial processes including a paper mill, various grinding shops and a rolling mill.
Records from the 1864 Sheffield Flood suggest that the site survived, but was badly damaged.
One of the images below shows that the site once had a much taller central building. This was later made much lower and re-roofed to form the building we know now.
What’s there now?
By the early years of this century, the site was no longer in industrial use. Local people will remember that for some years the mill building was home to a marquee business.
Sheffield City Council then sold it to developers who refurbished it as private housing.
The remains of the iron overshot water wheels were preserved as part of the housing development, as was a half-buried gear wheel. These are now in private ownership and there is no public access – please respect this.
Other historic features of the site can be seen clearly from the public footpath. Alongside the mill buildings, one of the old stone grinder’s troughs or “trows” can be seen resting on the ground.
Just below the mill buildings, you can see a larger trough, next to the “tail goit” or mill race that fed water back to the river after it had passed over the wheels.
The goit emerges from a stone-arched tunnel under the buildings and then flows below the adjacent Black Lane to join the river just above the Low Matlock weir. You can see these features from the lane and public footpath. Please don’t go through the gate and down the steps to them – that is private land.
What’s the heritage status of the site?
All the buildings around the dam are Grade II listed buildings, reflecting their national heritage significance:
- Olive House is the recently restored beautiful white house overlooking the dam. It was built by a nineteenth century mill owner named Joseph Woodward.
- Olive Wheel Mill is the mill building complex around the yard at the end of Black Lane. It is now three private houses.
- Olive Cottages is listed as a pair of cottages dating back to the mid nineteenth century. It is now one private dwelling.
All these listed buildings are on private land. Please respect this, and respect the residents’ privacy.
Olive Wheel and the other Loxley valley water power sites are now recognised for their heritage significance on the South Yorkshire Local Heritage List, following a successful submission by Friends of the Loxley Valley and other local groups in 2023.
Thank you!
We are indebted to many people and sources for their help in putting these water power pages together.
We would like to thank Tony Ball of the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society for his kind permission to reproduce images from their excellent book “Water Power on the Sheffield Rivers”. Much of the research for these pages is based on the authoritative water wheel histories in that book.
We would also like to thank Bradfield Parish Council and the Sheffield City Council North Local Area Committee for their generous funding of the interpretation signs and finger posts that we have put up along the valley.
