One of the island’s quirky iconic buildings, a small water wheel in a glen in Onchan, is continuing to deteriorate.

We have reported on the state of the building before and, as our picture shows, the Victorian water wheel ’Little Isabella’ in Groudle, is literally falling apart.

The water wheel has been the subject of a row in recent years about its ownership and which authority was responsible for it.

responsibility

Onchan Commissioners own the land, however the board has in the past said responsibility lies with the Department for the Environment, Food and Agriculture, which leases the area.

However, after DEFA Minister Geoffrey Boot insisted that the local authority is responsible for it, Onchan accepted this but refused to commit funds to its restoration.

And last year the board’s chairman, Martin MacFarlane, said the cost was likely to be about £200,000 to repair the building.

He said that a ’sum of that size would have an impact on ratepayers and was hard to justify against other priorities’.

A frequent critic of that position has been Garff MHK Daphne Caine, who has raised the issue in the House of Keys several times.

Mrs Caine told the Manx Independent: ’I am extremely disappointed to see the current dilapidated condition of the water wheel structure and concerned it is at imminent risk of collapsing into the Groudle Glen river.

’However, I, along with my Garff colleague Martyn Perkins MHK, have been working behind the scenes for many months in liaison with a local company, DEFA and Onchan Commissioners and we are hopeful a solution that could see the Victorian feature completely restored will be agreed very soon in order that restoration work can commence.’

Onchan MHK Rob Callister agreed that if a solution can be found then the wheel should be restored ’for the people of Onchan and the island’ however he said that costs related to it have to be ’sensible’.

While the building is in a sorry state of repair, it is arguably one of the most photographed features of the glen and is as synonymous with the area as the Groudle Glen Railway and the high arched road bridge which towers over the glen.

The wheel takes its unofficial name of Little Isabella from its slight resemblance to the Great Laxey Wheel - Lady Isabella - named after the wife of former Lieutenant Governor Charles Hope.

It was originally built in 1893 and survived thanks in part to a refurbishment in 1994 by Laxey Towing Co Ltd.

The Manx Independent asked Onchan Commissioners for an update on the condition of the water wheel and to ask whether the authority plans to repair it.

However the authority said it was not currently prepared to comment before we went to press.