Building record 6231/1/1 - Woodford Mill

Watermill and attached house. Probably mid C18 and C19 mill buildings. Regular coursed limestone and ironstone, part banded, with Colleyweston slate roof. Segmental arch with brick surround to ground floor left has weatherboarded cover and gives access to mill wheel. Remains of a second mill wheel is attached to right gable. Interior not inspected.

{1} Watermill and attached house. Probably mid C18 and C19 mill buildings. Regular coursed limestone and ironstone, part banded, with Colleyweston slate roof. Millhouse originally of 3-unit plan. 2 storeys with attic. 4-window range with 3 C19 casements with glazing bars to right under shallow stone arches and early C20 3-light stone mullion window to left. C20 stone porch and door to right of centre. One roof dormer. Ashlar gable parapets and kneelers and stone stacks at ridge. Mill building attached to right is of 2 storeys. 4-window range of vertically glazed casements at first floor and casements with glazing bars at ground floor; all under shallow arches. Central plank doors to ground and first floors. Segmental arch with brick surround to ground floor left has weatherboarded cover and gives access to mill wheel. Remains of a second mill wheel is attached to right gable. Interior not inspected.

{3} Two storey stone building; two wheels, one at each end of the mill. No other machinery survives. The group of buildings were converted into a guest house by the 1960s. Originally corn grinding.

{4} 1329 Abbot of Crowland acquitted on a charge of having raised the mill pond at Wylewat.
c1539 The mill, formerly the property of Croyland Abbey, became Crown property after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
1544 Mill granted by Henry VIII to Lord Parr.
1558 Willicoat Mills reverted to the Crown.
1562 Mill granted to Robert Lane and Anthony Throckmorton (who also owned the manor of Great Addington) and Willywater mill sold by them to Henry Clerke of Stanwick.
1624 On Gabriel Clerke's death he left the mill to his nephew Robert with the condition (engraved on Gabriel' memorial tablet in Potterspury Church) that one yearly rent charge of 40s be paid yearly at the four usual feasts to the overseers of the Poor of the parish of Potterspury.
1725 A poor child of Kettering was apprenticed to Thomas Dyson of Williot Mills to learn the craft of scouring of fulling cloth and stuffs.
1748 By this time a paper mill had been established here.
1763 Paper mills near Thrapston reported burnt down. This might refer to Woodford Upper Mill.
1782 Francis Tidbury, of Willet Mill, papermaker and miller, insured on his dwelling house and Mill with the wheels and fixtures therein, stone and slated, £330 (His water corn mill was at Ringstead).
1818 Paper mill at Woodford advertised to be sold or let.
1835 Last reference to paper making here.
1836 Advertised as a 'newly erected bone mill'.
1838 William Ivens paid a rent of £40 per annum for the bone mill, machinery, bone house, stable, sheds and a cottage.
1839 Reported that Woodford Mills 'were in a shameful state of repair and a large sum would be necessary to restore them'.
1840 George Capron, of Stoke Doyle, bought the Shuttleworth properties in Woodford and Ringstead for £6500.
1841 Notice from John Smith, Shipley Wharf, Northampton, that he had now taken the Bone-mill late in the occupation of Mr George Ivens, deceased, at Ringstead.
1844 Advert re sale of water corn mills at Woodford, called Willy Wat Mills, with entirely new machinery, driving three pairs of stones, dressing machine and sufficient stowage to allow of a second water wheel and machinery by a division of the stream.
1880 Moses Irons Eady (who had been miller here since before 1861) bought the mill from the Capron estate.
1889 Water corn mill advertised to let, having two waterwheels driving four pairs of stones, modern smut machine, silk dressing machine and elevators.
1898-1907 John Cave, miller at Top Mill, Woodford.
1911 William Dodson, who had taken over from John Cave as miller, installed a Tattershall Midget roller flour mill.
1913 Water power proving unreliable to drive the Midget roller plant, a six horse power petrol engine was added.
1930s Little flour was produced and provender milling also decreased, mainly due to the age of the miller.
1937 Milling and gristing ceased. Up to this time the smaller waterwheel in the south end of the mill, had powered one pair of stones for wheat grinding.
1971 Waterwheels derelict, with eel trap alongside the northern wheel inside the mill. The mill contained gearing for driving two pairs of Derbyshire peak stones from the inside wheel, and for one pair of French Burr Stones from the outside wheel at the south end.
2000 The outside wheel dilapidated and overgrown, inside wheel reasonably intact. Machinery as in 1971.
2001 November/December- Woodford Mill, 5-bedroomed cottage, 2 bedroomed cottage and mooring rights for 72 boats, advertised for sale at £750,000.

{5} Undated photo;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 2/168 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), G07 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN41470.

<3> Starmer G.H., 1964, CBA Record Cards: Industrial Archaeology in Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Recording Form (Not SMR)). SNN1647.

<4> STARMER G., 2002?, Northamptonshire Watermills Survey 2001 - 2002 (H-Z), p. 137 (Report). SNN105521.

<5> Photographs of buildings in Woodford (Photographs). SNN114290.

Record last edited

Nov 2 2022 3:15PM