Uppermost Wheel was working for less than 100 years, from the mid-18 th to mid-19 th centuries. It was situated near to the current Yorkshire Water water treatment works, about 400 m upstream of the junction of Rivelin Valley Road and the A57 Manchester Road. It was the furthest upstream of the 21 mills and dams on the Rivelin between this location and the confluence with the river Loxley at Malin Bridge, about 5.6 km downstream. The site is now on private land and is not normally accessible.

The remains of the weir, mill dam and Wheel appear to have been demolished before 1850 as they are not shown on the first edition 6” Ordnance Survey map, which was surveyed in 1850–51. Sheffield Waterworks Company built a ‘depositing pond’ (reservoir) across the river in this location in about 1869 to both smooth out compensation flows in the river and to allow some of the suspended sediment to settle out before the water was released into the Rivelin. This reservoir (or its replacement) is still there.

History (c. 1750s–1840s)

Main trades: Cutlery grinding.

Uppermost Wheel was described in 1751 as newly built, and had four cutlers’ trows; Edward Nicholls was the Lessee with a 21 year tenancy. The rebuilding of 1772 and an increase in the rent from £1 0s 0d to £1 11s 6d suggest that extra buildings were added. In 1794, the tenant was William Greaves; the wheel pit had a fall of some 15 ft (c. 4.5 m) but only ran three trows.

George Woollen, who also rented the Rivelin Corn Mill (next downstream) from the Duke of Norfolk, paid the rent from about 1799 up to 1845, by which time the Wheel had been pulled down.