Tuesday, 2 January 2018

Shalford Mill -18th-century watermill with well-preserved machinery

 I went to this place after visited ruins on the St Catherine's Hill. It was beautiful weather and I didn't want to come back home so early however I was after work at night time. This mill was close but it was so interesting outside too. I hope to come back when the mill will be open.
Shalford Mill sits on the Tillingbourne stream, as much a part of the medieval village as the church over the road or the pub opposite. Shalford is a lovely reminder of how things used to work with the artisan cottages collected around the focal points.
The Domesday Book records a mill being present on the site in 1086 - one of the five mills recorded as part of the great manor of Bramley. In the 15th century, the mill was owned by 'John atte Lee'. In the 16th by Sir Edmund Walsingham and in 1599 it was sold to George Austen.
The present timber-framed building, built around 1750 by John Mildred of Guildford, was unusual in that it originally housed two separate mills, each with its own waterwheel and machinery. The mill was operated for most of the 18th century by the Mildred family, first by John, then by his sons, Thomas and John, and then by his grandson, Daniel. In 1794 it was sold to Robert Austen and remained in his family, later the Godwin-Austens, for the rest of its working life. The eastern half of the mill ceased operation about 1870 and the machinery was removed. The western half remained in operation until 1914. Subsequently the mill was used as a seed store and later as a furniture store. By 1927 it was unused











 

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