Family History Fun: The Wheels Go Round, Round, Round!

Wednesday, 7 January 2026

The Wheels Go Round, Round, Round! - Sepia Saturday

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph shows a giant wheel at a Power Museum in Australia.

Above is one of the biggest wheels I have come across. It is in Hawick in the Scottish Borders. A water wheel was a once prominent sight in the region where I live, as a symbol of the knitwear and tweed mills which developed alongside the many tributaries of the River Tweed. Before modern industrialization, water was the main power source for industry in Scotland.

This wheel at Tower Mill. Hawick was built in 1852 over the Slitrig Water, and is noted for having the largest surviving waterwheel in a textile mill in southern Scotland. During the 19th century, water power was superseded by steam power, and tall chimneys came to dominate the town's skyline.

But the massive 14 foot wheel was the first in Hawick to generate electricity in 1900. As part of a Hawick major regeneration scheme, Tower Mill reopened in 2007 as a multi functional arts centre. The waterwheel is still visible from above through a glass flooring.

A 19th century photograph of Tower Mill, Hawick

So much for the history lesson! Let's take a look at other wheels.

With thanks for Auld Earlston for the this photographs from its collection

Cartwheels in the stable yard at Beamish Open Air Museum in North East England which recreates life in the 19th and 20th centuries.

A powerful view of the giant wheel on a steam train on the North Yorkshire Moors Heritage Railway at Grosmont, near Whitby.

A visit to the National Railway Museum at York where our daughter enjoyed playing gymnastics on the giant wheels.

The London Eye - we stayed in a hotel round the corner from the Eye on the south bank of the River Thames and every evening enjoyed this lovely view. The structure, the world’s tallest cantilevered observation wheel, opened December 31st 1999 and was originally called the Millennium Wheel.