Gibsons The Old Watermill Jigsaw Puzzle Review



The Old Watermill shows a beautiful slice of the English summer countryside with the artist, John Francis, painting an idyllic scene of wildlife, flora and fauna surrounding this old mill with it's working water wheel.

Gibsons The Old Watermill is currently available as a 500 piece gift box set jigsaw puzzle. It comes in a square box with the design wrapping around the entire lid. A fold out poster is included inside to refer to as you make this vibrant wildlife jigsaw come to life.

This colourful and pretty watermill and pond design is ideal if you enjoy jigsaw puzzles of the English countryside and wildlife. It paints a relaxing scene with nostalgia for quiet and peaceful summer days.

Gibsons The Old Watermill Jigsaw Puzzle Review


Gibsons The Old Watermill Jigsaw Puzzle Review John Francis English countryside wildlife birds ducks heron british


Title: The Old Watermill

Publisher: Gibsons

Release date: na

Artist: John Francis

Cutting style: Grid cut

Number of puzzle pieces: 500

Finished size approx: 49 x 33.5 cm / 19 x 13 inches approx

The Old Watermill is now produced as a 500 piece in a pretty gift box with poster included. It used to be available by Gibsons as a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. If you love this design and would like the larger version, look to auction sites to see if you can still find one.


This is a beautiful piece of painted scenery by the artist, John Francis, which is a pleasure to look at. It has some degree of challenge as a smaller 500 piece jigsaw puzzle design because of all the greenery, and even the pond has green shades reflected in it.

Perfect for those who love wildlife and particularly birds due to the large heron off to the left and the selection of ducks including the black and white male tufted duck and the male mallard.

Puzzle Quality Notes


I received this jigsaw puzzle as a gift and what a lovely gift it made too. It comes in a very smart and deep square box, quite different to how most jigsaw puzzles are presented. The box is much smarter than the usual Gibsons blue box with a wrap-around box lid image of the wonderful design.

Inside the box is also a folded poster (approx 30 x 43 cm) which is comparable with the size of many rectangular boxed jigsaw puzzles and plenty good enough to work from as an image. I was able to stick the poster to my wall so I could easily glance at it while constructing the jigsaw.

The packaging then has a quality feel and I was not disappointed in the quality of the puzzle pieces either. Gibsons is a good make. They have some minor, and I mean minor issues, with the backing paper tearing and lifting on the reverse. Never has this affected the front of the design for me.

The front pieces are glossy and feel good to hold. I love glossy finish jigsaw puzzles although they're not always the best to do if you do most of your puzzling in the evenings under artificial lighting.

Jigsaw Puzzle Construction Order and Tips


The old watermill jigsaw puzzle by John Francis artist water mill pond puzzles jigsaws 500 pieces heron birds wildlife

For a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle, this had its challenges. There is a lot of green in this design, probably two-thirds of the image is in different shades of green. Even the water has green reflected from the leaves of the plants and trees surrounding it.

If you like 500 piece jigsaws that hold some challenge, this is a good one to do. Not overly hard but it will take some work to get all the green pieces into the correct place.


I started with the edge pieces. The side edge pieces were easier due to the pink flowers on one side and the squirrel and wild mushrooms on the other. The sky was rather tricky and so too was the bottom edge.

I recommend trying to pull out the non-green items first and assembling those areas before filling the rest in: the flowers, the tree, squirrel, fungi, watermill, purple and pink bushes.

What to Look for on Completing This Jigsaw Puzzle


It may be fun to visit the RSPB bird identifier online or look in a bird book to try and identify what the specific species are. Older kids may enjoy learning a little about some of the wildlife in this jigsaw.

Overall Experience With The Old Watermill


I really enjoyed putting this design together. It had me puzzled a few times on trying to work out where certain pieces fit, but was such a stunning scene that I never got annoyed with it or wanted to quit at any point. It was challenging but not too challenging for me to do.

Highly recommended to all nature lovers and those who enjoy quaint British wildlife and countryside scenes. The finished design is so vibrant and pretty to look at.


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Articles are accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in medical, business, financial, legal, or technical matters. All images on this site are my own or are product and public domain photos that are used with permission.