THE 19th century water wheel at Fountains Abbey is set to turn again as an ambitious restoration project enters its final phase.

The 18ft diameter wheel is part of Europe's oldest monastic corn mill at the Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal estate.

It dates back to 1860 and was installed to power a timber saw, but originally the mill was built in the 1140s to supply the abbey community with flour to make bread.

The wheel was once powered by water from the River Skell, but has not been used for decades and has been slowly decaying.

Now, as part of a £1m project between the National Trust and English Heritage to conserve and re-open the mill to the public next spring, the skills of a Lincolnshire millwright have been employed.

Mr Terry Frazier, National Trust project manager, said: "The water wheel is a key part of the mill's story, but its restoration is a highly skilled and complex task. There are only about a dozen people in the UK capable of doing this work."

When it opens to the public next year, the mill will house displays, medieval milling demonstrations and an exhibition of ancient artefacts, as well as the turning water wheel.

To make the wheel turn again, Mr Neil Medcalf, aged 35, a millwright from Alford, near Skegness, has been working to free seized bearings and replace slats and 56 water buckets. His next task is to tackle the mill's rusted sluice gates.

Repairs to the stonework of the wheelhouse and consolidating the leats and dam was done in an earlier phase of work and the survival of the watercourses has added to the site's importance.