At the peak of its production in the 19th century, Houghton had three low breastshot wheels, sometimes known as four o'clock wheels because of the point at which the water hits the blades.

The wheels powered 10 pairs of stones through a complex system of gears which translated the energy produced by the rotating wheels to the stones and enabled grinding to take place.

History of water power
Watermills harness the force created by water when it turns the wheel. This way the wheel transmits power to the internal machinery. The earliest watermills were vertical axis cornmills known as Norse or Greek mills which appeared in the Middle East in the first or second century bc.

The first recorded watermill in Britain was in the 8th century ad. Three hundred years later in 1086, the Domesday Book recorded 5,624 watermills in operation.

Water power continued as the main source of mechanical power until it was superseded by steam power during the Industrial Revolution. England alone, is thought to have had 20,000 working watermills by the end of the 17th century.

There are three main types of waterwheel. Undershot wheels, where the water hits the blades at a low level, are mainly used on shallow, slow running rivers in flat areas. Overshot wheels, powered by water falling on to the blades from above, are often found on fast flowing rivers in hilly areas. Breastshot wheels, like Houghton's, are particularly suited to rivers where there is a large volume of water flowing at a low velocity. To ensure the steady running of the wheel, the flow of water to the mill was controlled by a gate, called a penstock, operated by the miller.

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Everywhere in the mill, iron teeth mesh with wooden cogs. This mixture of wood and metal was favoured because it reduced the level of noise and did not produce sparks which were liable to set the mill on fire.

The waterwheel drives the main shaft to the pit wheel. The wallower then converts the horizontal movement to a vertical one - driving the great spur wheel whose teeth engage with the stone nuts (small gear wheels) which rotate the millstones.