Tanbark
![Workers peeling hemlock bark for the tannery in Prattsville, New York, United States.](/Images/godic/202501/30/Peeling_hemlock_bark_for_tanning3442.jpg")
![Waterwheel at Combe House Hotel in Holford, Somerset, England. The overshot waterwheel was cast by Bridgwater ironfounder H Culverwell & Co in 1892 to replace an earlier wheel. It was used to grind oak bark for the tannery complex established here in the 1840s by James Hayman. When the tannery closed in 1900 the waterwheel was adapted to other uses such as grinding grain for grist, cutting chaff, chopping apples for the cider press and generating electricity. It also cracked stones in a nearby quarry. The gearing survives too.](/Images/godic/202501/30/Holford,_waterwheel_at_Combe_House_Hotel_-_geograph.org.uk_-_500573442.jpg")
Tanbark is the bark of certain species of tree. It is traditionally used for tanning hides.
The words "tanning", "tan," and "tawny" are derived from the Medieval Latin tannare, "to convert into leather."
Bark mills are horse- or oxen-driven or water powered edge mills and were used in earlier times to shred the tanbark to derive tannins for the leather industry.