THE dilapidated water wheel at Acton Mill has not turned for many years, and time has taken its toll.

But restoration of this evocative relic of rural life is in the pipeline, along with an imaginative extension of the old mill building that will protect the wheel from further decay.

A sensitive approach to the project has been essential, and not just because the mill contributes to the beauty of the ancient unspoilt village of Acton Beauchamp on the border of Herefordshire and Worcestershire near Suckley.

It is also revered by Mormons as the birthplace of Job Pingree, one of the pioneering settlers of the religion's communities in Utah, USA.

Farmer Matt Hooper, aged 33, and Julie Bolton, 37, are owners of the mill, which forms part of Acton Mill Farm. They are creating more room in their home, where they have lived for four years, by building an extension that celebrates its historical features.

Julie, who works for Worcester News publisher Newsquest (South Midlands) said: “The history of the mill, and its links to the Mormons, means a lot to us, and we want to make our changes sympathetically.”

The couple’s modest two-story extension will entail building a glass floor so they can gaze down on the water wheel, which will be restored and illuminated so it can be better admired.

Although there are records of the mill at Acton Beauchamp dating as far back as 1614, most is known about it through the memoirs of Job Pingree, the miller born at Acton Mill Farm in 1837 who went on to become a leading member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Matt and Julie know about the Mormon link to their home from a book about Job’s life (one of a limited edition of 325 copies). It was presented to a Mr Norman Narbeth, who owned the farm from 1959-1996, by one of Job’s descendants, George Pingtree, president of the US-based Job Pingree Family Organisation, as a gift for showing visitors from the group around the mill and farm.

Julie said: “The book has been in the farmhouse, where Matt’s mother lives, for years. It is amazing to have such a vivid history of the place, and to know that it is so important to so many people.”

Job Pingtree was thrust early into the business of milling. His father drowned in the mill pond when Job was only six years old, and although his mother soon remarried her second husband was then killed after falling from a horse, leaving his step-son to take charge of the farm and mill at the age of 18.

Job describes his home in detail in his memoirs: “Our place was a house, six rooms, stable, barn, sheds, cider mill, celler [sic], oven to bake bread, pig pens, cow pen, orchards, apples, pears, cherries and a lot of garden fruit currants, gooseberries, and other fruit.

“Also we kept on the place horses and cows, ducks and chickens and pigs.

“We had a hop yard and kiln to dry them ready for market after they were tramped solid in large sacks.

“We made yearly several hundred gallons of cider and perry, which was the common drink at meals and for men at work in that part of England.”

Job looked all set for a conventional miller’s life until events took a profound turn.

His mother, Charlotte, was converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by one of the many Mormon preachers who were travelling the country at that time.

Her second husband, before his death, had violently disapproved of his wife’s new-found religion.

To avoid his wrath, one night she stole away in the dead of night to be baptised by missionaries in the mill pond on the farm.

Job himself was converted soon afterwards.

The death of his step-father gave Job and his mother the chance of a radical change of life. They rented out the family farm and emigrated to America to join the burgeoning Mormon community in Utah.

His memoirs describe the sea crossing in which several people died. After disembarking in Boston, Job and his fellow settlers travelled by train to Iowa, then joined a wagon train for the perilous journey West.

In a particularly vivid passage he recalled a tragic accident involving his young step-brother and step-sister: “When we camped at night our wagons were put in the shape of a horse shoe, only less narrow so we could drive cattle in to catch them.

“One morning when we were yoking them up and hitching them to wagons they stampeded, running over people.

“One old man was killed. My mother had a little boy killed and her daughter, Martha's, hip was broken so she had to be hauled in a wagon all the way to Utah.”

Job settled in Ogden, a township about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City, and set to work doing jobs such as fencing, building bridges and dams, and digging irrigation channels.

He married four times (at times having more than one wife, a practice that was encouraged in the Mormon community) and had 16 children who survived into adulthood.

In 1859 he returned to England to sell the farm and mill, and returned to Utah with 2,000 dollars which he invested in land, commercial threshing, and various other business enterprises.

By the 1870s he was a prosperous man. He ran for the city council, and became a bank president and a leader in church and civic affairs before his death in 1928.