Within the local area the landscape
character relates to the presence of woodland, arable, open
grassland and a few water courseways
among the rolling countryside. The farming and industrious
community utilised what commodities that were available to
suit local needs. The elevated status of the land allowed
underlying water to exudate from the high water table on the
escarpment, forming a number of free running springs to combine
into a tributary of streams across the hillside and ravines.
To the north of the village where Lilybrook has eroded the
sand beneath Coral Rag a place called Blind Mill has emerged
resulting in the formation of a steep gully that is now thickly
wooded.
Mills
At the time of the Domesday Survey a mill was first documented
at 'Stoche', an area that at this date included the modern
settlements of Bradenstoke and Lyneham. In 1538 Bradenstoke
Priory leased a horse-mill, with two appurtenant closes of
pasture, all part of the manor of Bradenstoke, to William
Towresley for 40 years.
A horse-mill is a mill that uses a horse as the power source.
Any milling process can be powered in this way, but the most
frequent use of animal power in horse-mills was for grinding
grain and pumping water.
No more is known until 1649 when Thomas Crompton's lease
of the Bradenstoke estate included a 'newly built' gristmill
near the farmhouse. In 1692 James, Earl of Abingdon, leased
a gristmill at Bradenstoke to Henry Pinnell, who agreed to
keep it in repair." After Henry Pinnell's death, Goddard
Smith became entitled to the ongoing term of the lease formerly
held by Pinnell, but by 1738 he had let the mill fall into
disrepair.
The water powered Gristmill originally operated with a wooden
water wheel. The mill was used to grind and process wheat,
corn, other grains which were stored and sold in the village.
No record of a mill on the Lyneham estate survives until
the 18th century. In 1718 James and Mary Baker were granted
a lease of Blind Mill, although the lease did not include
the right to take fish from the millpond. Earlier recorded
documents from the Survey of the Manors of Lyneham and Preston
dated 1713, reveal James and Mary Baker held the lease, dated
16th January 1727, for all of the close meadow grounds and
pasture land named Combes Bottoms Mill Lands.
They also held a lease for 99 years for the adjacent hanging
grounds called The Little Hill and all the watercourses dams
mill, banks, pound flood gates, sluices except the rights
to fish and fishing of the Mill Pond. John Walker bought this
mill of Mrs Maskelyne in 1755.
The Blind Mill was an overshot watermill powered by the Lilybrook
stream. The mill was named for its submergence in the shallow
habitat of the corallian gorge to the north of Lyneham. The
top surface sand was quickly eroded by the Lilybrook stream
making the water medium ideal for the mill power source. Many
travellers, even today, were unaware of the buildings existance.
During high rainfall surplus free running stream water would
branch off into an adjoining low lying catchment area in the
valley named the mill pond. The surplus water collected in
poorly drained soil in the pond area which acted act as an
stockpile, to ensure adequate volumes of water were always
available to work the mill machinery. Later sluice gates were
added to the exit of the pond which could be opened and closed
to control the water flow over the mill paddle wheels, during
the dry summer season.
The mill pond has completely dried up now and much of the
land is overgrown by rough weeds. The course of the stream
still exists albeit flowing at a very gentle pace.
The 1871 Census documents that Mary Hillier, aged 80 years,
occupied the Blind Mill with her daughter Rose Hillier, aged
47 years. Both were born in nearby Brinkworth and were often
working long hours at the Mill to earn an income to make ends
meet. The Hillier family were documented as paupers of the
mill.
William Reeves and his wife Sarah, occupied the other half
of the mill. William and Sarah aged 21 and 20 years respectively,
were often known to be a hard working couple, he was an agricultural
labourer and she was working in the mill, grinding corn for
the local baker John Cooper.
Fourteen years later the same mill, then known as Lyneham
Mill, which was tenanted by James Hiskins in 1885. His father
George Hiskins a farmer of 6 acres, lived at No 15 Lyneham
Green, died on the 11th January 1885 aged 74, his wife Mary
Ann Hiskins lived their other son George until her death four
years later. She died on the 14th June 1889. Both parents
have been laid to rest in St Michael and All Angels graveyard
Lyneham.
James Hiskins was recorded in the 1881 Census as head of
the Mill, formerly addressed as 45 Trow Lane Lyneham. The
records show that James was a farmer of 70 acres employing
2 men and 2 boys. The document records James Hiskins, aged
58, as head of house, Eliza Hiskins, aged 58, as his wife,
John Hiskins (27), Ernest Hiskins (16), and Ann Maria Dixon,
a domestic servant aged 12 years resided in the mill too.
James Hiskins remained tenant until 1903.
Twenty years earlier in the 1861 Census, James Hiskins and
his family were recorded as living at 15 Trow Lane Farm, an
arable farm of 66 acres. Within the household, James lived
with his wife Eliza Maria Hiskins, and three children, two
sons John (7) Francis (15) and daughter Mary aged 2 years.
Today the site of the mill, now derelict and overgrown with
plants, can be seen beside Lilly Brook to the south-west of
Hillocks Wood and Lilybrook House. The mill was worked up
to c1900 and villagers were invited to take small quantities
of corn for grinding for home bread baking. The land on the
right of the road beyond the Mill Lane was divided into large
allotments and quite a lot of the holders grew corn.
There is additional evidence that the local area had a few
mills utilised by the farmers in the dense plantations. The
origin of the Melsome Wood blanketing the north-facing escarpment
of Avon Vale provides evidence that the named ‘Mills
Hamlet’ existed. The early plantation had a demesne
property in the centre of the woodland with two wood mills
for the felling of timber.
Mill Operation
Grain would arrive at Lyneham Mill by horse and cart in sacks
from the surrounding farms or the local estate. If you would
like to know more on how the milling process was carried out
and the decline of village milling in the 19th Century click
here.
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