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Water power and watermills

The author, well-known to readers as having worked for many years at the University of Reading’s Museum of English Rural Life, where many engine archive records are kept, has made an invaluable study of the way in which water power has changed through two millennia and its part in economic and social development.

Return to the days of when water powered the early industrial revolution, driving cotton mills, iron forges and pumps in mines and quarries.

In a highly readable style and through 160 colour photos, Dr Brown includes water power on the farm, flour milling, the competition from steam and the effect that water power had on the landscape.

We end with hydro-electricity and whether we have a green future from water power. Its story is far from over.

All the usual surviving flagship buildings that amply illustrate water power are included in their historic context and there are numerous diagrams to help us understand how it all worked. A thoroughly recommended volume for your bookshelf.

Book, By Jonathan Brown, 208pp, h/b, colour and mono, Crowood Press, Tel. 01672 520320, ISBN 978 1 84797 243 9. £25.