The small turbine only produces 300W - but with 7kWh of battery storage that’s plenty for what’s needed at the Coach House, which is the one remaining building on site and now used by a Forest School.

The project was funded by Somerset Council’s Climate Emergency Fund, plus South Somerset Hydro, the Garfield Weston Foundation, Blackdown Hills Rural Partnership, Devon Community Foundation and Forest School themselves. Both Churchstanton and Otterford Parish Councils have also been very supportive.

It’s taken 7 years to get the project funded and completed. The water supply for the turbine reuses an ancient mill channel which comes about half a mile from a spring. This spring runs and produces power all year round - which is the beauty of hydro, when compared to intermittent renewables such as solar or wind.

The supply channel or “leat” has been dug out by hand over 4 years by a local volunteer - a massive undertaking as it was badly silted up. In Victorian times, part of the supply channel was buried during the formal landscaping of the gardens. Several sections of the culvert had collapsed so we had to bring in contractors to excavate and reinstate the underground route.

After filtration, the 160mm supply pipe carries the water a total of 8m in height down to the turbine. At this point the supply pipe splits into two smaller pipes, reducing ultimately to tiny jets which hit the wheel simultaneously from two different directions, increasing the efficiency of the turbine. An armoured cable takes the low voltage power back up to the Coach House where it’s stored in batteries and then transformed into 240V for normal domestic use.

All this has great heritage benefits as the project essentially uses medieval infrastructure for a modern purpose. There’s no need to grind corn here these days but it really helps to be able to switch on lights and charge up a laptop without having to think about it.

Hydro generation has had many benefits. The site is now much quieter, as the Forest School no longer has to use a petrol generator, which was noisy, polluting and costly to run. With a constant and hassle-free electricity supply, the local community can make use of the building for functions at weekends and during school holidays - and perhaps we can finally install a fridge!