It is a lovely place to visit not only do you get a guided tour that explains the history and how the mill works.  There is also opportunity to walk around the mill pools and through the surrounding woodlands which allow views of the mill from different perspectives.

There is also the opportunity to walk under the viaduct (part of the severn valley railway) and view it from both sides along with trains travelling along the viaduct.  The walk also allows you to see the track and the steam trains at eye level.  The train drivers often blow the trains whistle and wave to visitors as the train passes by.  The flour that the mill produces can be purchased raw or in the form of scones in the tea shop.

Just below the dam of the top pool at Daniels Mill you can see the ruin of an older mill. It was used until the mid 19th century and was known locally as ‘The Mill in the Hole’.

From a signboard at Daniels Mill:

In the late 1850s the railway came to the area and the imposing Oldbury Viaduct was built.  Absorbed into the Great Western Railway in the 1870s, the mill owners were one of many small share owners of the original construction company.

The connection has been maintained, and the present miller Alan George, became a founder member of the Severn Valley Railway Society set up in the late 1960s to rescue the line after it was closed under the ‘Beeching Axe’.  Today it operates as a successful heritage railway with regular services between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster

I invite you to join me at Vision & Verb where I talk about my interesting visits to Daniels Mill and share some of its history.

The workings of the mill were explained and demonstrated in great detail.  At the end of the tour, as if to order, a steam train chuffed its way across the viaduct.  This was a queue to visit Highley Station on the Severn Valley Railway.  A few minutes after getting there another train arrived to order giving me the perfect photo opportunity.

I won’t mention the large slice of coffee cake I had for lunch, because I am on a diet!  Nor that I rather stupidly left my camera at home, luckily my phone takes pictures.