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A tide mill is a specialist type of water mill driven by tidal rise and fall. Watermill of Braine-le-Château, Belgium (12th century) A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour or lumber production. ...
A dam with a sluice is created across a suitable tidal inlet, or a section of river estuary is made into a reservoir. As the tide comes in it enters the mill pond through a one way gate, this gate closes automatically when the tide begins to fall. When the tide is low enough the stored water can be released to turn a water wheel. A sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate. ...
Tide mills are usually situated in river estuaries, away from the effects of waves but close enough to the sea to have a reasonable tidal range. The tidal range is the vertical difference between the highest high tide and the lowest low tide. ...
Woodbridge Tide Mill, an excellent example, survives at Woodbridge in Suffolk, England. This mill has been preserved and is open to the public. Its water wheel can be seen turning. Woodbridge is the name of various places around the world: In Australia: Woodbridge, Western Australia formerly called West Midland. ...
Suffolk (pronounced SUF-fk) is a large traditional and administrative county in the East Anglia region of eastern England. ...
Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages None official English de facto Capital None official London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001...
Another example now only visible in historic documents, is the mill in the hamlet of Tide Mills, East Sussex.
For many years a newer type of tide mill has been proposed using a dam across a large river estuary. Although it represents a source of renewable energy, each proposal tends to come under local opposition because of its likely impact on coastal habitats. However one proposal which came to fruition in 1966 is the Rance barrage or Usine marémotrice de la Rance (in French). Unlike historical tide mills which could only operate on an ebb tide, the Rance barrage can generate electricity on both flows of the tide or it can be used for pumped storage depending on demand. Renewable energy (sources) or RES capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal heat flows. ...
1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ...
The tide is the regular rising and falling of the oceans surface caused by changes in gravitational forces external to the Earth. ...
Pumped storage hydroelectricity is a method of storing and producing electricity to supply high peak demands by moving water between reservoirs at different elevations. ...
See also
The use of water power in Britain was at its peak just before the Industrial Revolution. ...
Tidal power is a means of electricity generation achieved by capturing the energy contained in moving water mass due to tides. ...
External links - Tide Mills in England and Wales, a catalogue of tide mills by county
- Woodbridge Tide Mill
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