The Groudle Glen water wheel has been removed from its home before it heads to the UK for restoration.

Little Isabella, as the wheel is affectionately known, was lifted out above the trees by Isle of Man Heavy Crane Services which was brought in by the main contractor EG Services. Laxey mining company MMD GPHC Ltd is behind the scheme to demolish and rebuild the wheelhouse and restore the wheel, which dates back to the late 19th century.

The wheel will be restored to its former glory and the intention is to rebuild the wheelhouse on a like for like basis.

Project manager Eric Fyfe from EG Services told the Manx Independent that planning the removal of the wheel had proved the most time consuming part of the job.

He said: ’It was probably about 10 hours of planning. And then three hours or so to drop the building and then a couple of days to move the wheel up and out.’

Crane driver Stephen Broad added: ’We closed the road at 9am and had it closed for a week to allow for weather or any other issues but we ended up ahead of our schedule a little so happy days.’

The crane used to move the wheel is a true beast with a 52 main boom with 19m fly jib which towered above the houses and trees along King Edward Road.

Stephen added: ’I first looked at this in January, with a site visit about three months ago when we spoke to residents and the railway and got the maps to establish the radius of the site.’

Lift supervisor Aileen Broad praised the residents who have coped with the scheme going on this week, saying: ’They’ve been brilliant. Without their support, we wouldn’t have been to do it.’

She added: ’Because we have to put the extra ballast on this crane and the pads on the floor, this isn’t a five minute job. There is a lot of planning that has gone into this.’

The wheel was separated in half to get it out of the glen.

At its highest, the wheel was about 45m above the floor as it was raised over the trees and houses.

Stephen added: ’It is quite a tight spot down there. We have a small window to get in through the tree canopy and back out again. It’s certainly not an easy job.’

Aileen said that working down in the valley meant they could only see a part of the crane.

And Eric described getting the wheel and the skip used to move the hut materials out as ’like hitting a postage stamp’.