Building record 987/1/1 - Whilton Mill

Mill and adjoining cottage of ironstone. To the north of the mill cottage is a red-brick building with the appearance of an inn.

{1}1086 Domesday Survey records Woltone with one mill rendering 40d.
1756 Watermill and mill house, land and a windmill in the parish of Whilton let to Franci Davis at the yearly rent of £20.
1805 Unsuccessful attempt to buy mill to improve water supply for the Grand Junction Canal.
1841 Mill run in conjunction with 'Mill Inn'.
1846 Advert for the sale of Whilton Lodge Estate included the water corn mill, working three pairs of stones and a public house called 'Mill Inn'.
1850 Whilton Lodge Estate again advertised for sale. The water corn mill, having an undershot waterwheel, with the Mill Inn and 38 acres of land sold for £2590.
1856 Whilton Lodge Estate including 'a valuable mill' again for sale.
1862 Samuel Spokes, farmer and miller at Whilton Mill, adjudged bankrupt.
1893 Mill sold again.
1928 By this time, Fred Ashby at Whilton Mill was listed only as a farmer.
1986 Remains of wooden water wheel shaft in situ, carrying a two-part cast iron pit wheel. Meshing with this was a cast iron wallower on a square section (with top and bottom sections chamfered to give an octagonal section) wooden vertical shaft. On the first floor was a square section layshaft with large diameter wooden pulleys of a type often used to transmit power by belts to machines such as hammer mills for grinding animal feed.


Survival of watercourse and group of buildings including the former mill. Site visit 13/02/2001. Mill buildings judged to have been maintained to a high standard.

<1> STARMER G., 2002?, Northamptonshire Watermills Survey 2001 - 2002 (H-Z), p.131 (unchecked) (Report). SNN105521.

Record last edited

Oct 22 2020 9:04AM