The use of water power in Britain was at its peak just before the Industrial Revolution. The need for power was great and steam power had not yet become established. It is estimated that at this time there were well in excess of ten thousand watermills in the country. Most of these were corn mills (to grind flour), but almost any industrial process needing motive power, beyond that available from the muscles of men or animals, used a water wheel, unless a windmill was preferred. Today only a fraction of these mills survive. Many are used as private residences, or have been converted into offices or flats. A number have been preserved or restored as museums where the public can see the mill in operation. This is a list of some of the surviving watermills and tide mills in the United Kingdom.

England

Bedfordshire

Berkshire

Buckinghamshire

Cambridgeshire

Cheshire

Cornwall

Cumbria

Derbyshire

Devon

Dorset

Durham

East Sussex

East Yorkshire

Essex

Gloucestershire

Greater London

Hampshire

Hertfordshire

Isle of Wight

Kent

Lancashire

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

Norfolk

Northamptonshire

North Yorkshire

Northumberland

Nottinghamshire

Oxfordshire

Shropshire

Somerset

South Yorkshire

Staffordshire

Suffolk

Surrey

Tyne and Wear

Warwickshire

West Midlands

West Sussex

West Yorkshire

Wiltshire

Worcestershire

Scotland

Aberdeenshire

Angus

Dumfries and Galloway

East Ayrshire

East Lothian

East Renfrewshire

Highlands

Click Mill, Kingussie

Lanarkshire

Moray

North Ayrshire

Orkney

Perthshire

Renfrewshire

Scottish Borders

Robert Small's Printing Works, Innerleithen

Shetland

South Ayrshire

Western Isles

West Lothian

Northern Ireland

County Antrim

County Down

County Fermanagh

County Tyrone

Wales

Clwyd

Dyfed

Gwent

Gwynedd

Mid Glamorgan

Powys

South Glamorgan

West Glamorgan