two watercourses starting from the slopes of the clent hills run through the village. on one was spout mill, which ground corn near where the worcester and kidderminster roads diverge south of the village. the two brooks combined lower down to create sweetpool (now encroached on by the railway line and silted up); beyond that was the 18th-century brake mill, where the stream was dammed to create the mill pool. before the boundary changes of 1888, a number of ironworking mills established further downstream during the industrial revolution gave hagley an industrial hinterland.