Burton Agnes Hall, Wooden Wheel for Pumping Water

Slide 4 – In the outbuilding facing the Kitchen Court is an interesting relic of bygone days – an old wheel some fourteen feet in diameter, made of wood, and formally used for pumping water, by man-power, from a draw well. As will be noticed, the wheel has two sets of spokes fixed into a wooden shaft in the centre, and the outer rim of the wheel is boarded cross ways, and of sufficient breadth to admit a man getting inside between the two sets of spokes. By walking, or rather running, on the inside circumference of the Wheel, the man’s weight would propel and cause it to revolve on its axis, and setting in motion the gearing attached to the pump, and thus draw water from the well, to supply the Hall.