A HOTEL took a step towards a hydro-powered future when work started on installing an Archimedes Screw this week.

The Old Swan and Minster Mill in Minster Lovell, near Witney, took delivery of the screw on Monday to harness the power of the River Windrush.

The power plant will generate 48,000 kilowatt hours of energy a year, equivalent to the power used by about 10 homes.

It will be installed by Hallidays Hydropower, who put in the UK’s first domestic Archimedes screw in 2007, by the end of October.

Hotel general manager Patrick Jones said: “We are proud to play our part in improving our green commitments.

“We are a business and therefore we calculated that the cost of energy will continuously rise and that this investment over a period of six or seven years will pay for itself.”