sihg newsletter no 169 may 2009 diary advance notice … · the 34th series of sihg industrial...

SIHG Newsletter No 169 May 2009

DIARY

Advance Notice The 34th series of SIHG Industrial Archaeology Lectures

Will be held on alternate Tuesdays, 1930 - 2130, from 29 September 2009 at the University of Surrey (Lecture Theatre F). Enquiries to programme co-ordinator, Bob Bryson, email [email protected]. Maps at www.sihg.org.uk

Free parking is available on the campus in the evening, in the main car park. Members fee £35 for the series, only £30 if paid by 30 June. Single lectures at £5, payable on the night, are open to all.

Tadworth Post Mill - the Tallest in the UK:

in danger of falling down, but about to be repaired,

see page 9. Photo: Mildred Cookson.

www.sihg.org.uk

Contents

2 Reports and Notices

3 Diary

4 The Surrey Iron Railway: a Contemporary Russian Description by Paul W Sowan

5 John William Grover (1836-1892) by Peter Tarplee

7 SERIAC 2009 - Talks and Visit

9 Tadworth Post Mill by Alan Crocker

9 Surrey Industrial History Group Officers

Reports and No ces Details of meetings are reported in good faith, but information may become out of date.

Please check details before attending.

SIHG Visits details & updates at www.sihg.org.uk

Editorial Note Many thanks to all who have sent in contributions.

Copy is needed urgently for the July issue of SIHG Newsletter!

Recording Factory Closures, Demolition of Old Machinery etc

A good opportunity to record the history & to rescue traditional papers & machinery!

If you hear of a factory which is about to close, please report it to us; contacts on page 19.

The deadline for submitting copy for the next Newsletter is 10 July 2009. Submissions are accepted in typescript, on a disc, or by e-mail to [email protected].

Anything related to IA will be considered. Priority will be given to Surrey-based or topical articles.

Contributions will be published as soon as space is available.

Readers are advised that the views of contributors are not necessarily the views of SIHG.

Website: www.sihg.org.uk

We are still seeking a new Treasurer. This is a very useful & rewarding role & a relatively light task as SIHG is part of the Surrey Archaeological Society. The formal accounts are thus presented by the parent body, not by the SIHG Treasurer.

SIHG has expanded!

Gordon Knowles has now retired from running his Thursday Morning Lecture Series at Leatherhead, but it is planned to continue, using guest speakers. It was therefore thought appropriate for the course at Leatherhead to continue under the auspices of SIHG.

As seating is strictly limited, enrolment is for a whole course only; casual attendance is not possible.

A leaflet is enclosed.

Saturday 11 July 1400 SIHG AGM 2009 +

Conservation Award Presentation to Kempton Great Engines Museum Snakey Lane Hanworth Middlesex TW13 6SH.

Followed by a talk about the engines.

2 SIHG Newsletter 169 May 2009

Other IA Organisations - Venues, Times & Contacts

Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre: is off the B2139 between Arundel and Storrington, next to Amberley railway station in West Sussex. Free parking.

Crossness Pumping Station:. Belvedere Road, Abbey Wood, London SE2. £4 adults. Visits must be booked in advance on Tuesdays or Sundays, 0930 - 1530. Visits start at 1330. www.crossness.org.uk.

Croydon Natural History & Scientific Society: small hall, United Reformed Church Hall, Addiscombe Grove, East Croydon at 1945. Contact Celia Bailey, 96a Brighton Road, South Croydon CR2 6AD, www.greig51.freeserve.co.uk/cnhss/.

Crux Easton Wind Engine: 1 mile off A343, Highclere to Hurstbourne Tarrant, SU 425 564, 1100 - 1600, £2, www.hampshiremills.org.

Docklands History Group: Museum in Docklands, No1 Warehouse, West India Quay, Hertsmere Road, London, E14 4AL, at 1730, www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk, .

East London History Society: Latimer Church Hall, Ernest Street E1 at 1930. www.eastlondonhistory.org.uk Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society (GLIAS): Morris Lecture Theatre, Robin Brook Centre, St Bartholomew’s

Hospital, at 1830 Enter from West Smithfield, turn right after 2nd archway, then up small steps at front. www.glias.org.uk. Greenwich Industrial History Society: The Old Bakehouse, Age Exchange Centre (rear),

11 Blackheath Village, SE3 (opposite Blackheath Station) at 1930. £1. Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society (HIAS ): Underhill Centre,

St John's Road, Hedge End, SO30 4AF at 1945; visitors welcome, free parking. Kew Bridge Steam Museum: Green Dragon Lane, Brentford, Middx TW8 0EN; open 1100. 0208568 4757, www.kbsm.org. Leatherhead & District Local History Society: Letherhead Institute, High Street,

Leatherhead , at 1930 (coffee), £2. www.leatherheadlocalhistory.org.uk/ London Canal Museum: 12/13 New Wharf Road, N1 9RT, at 1930. £3 (£2 discounts). 020 7713 0836,

www.canalmuseum.org.uk Lowfield Heath Windmill: Russ Hill, Charlwood, TQ 234 407. Guided Tours, 1400 - 1700,

donations welcome. Mid-Hants Railway: Stations at Alton, Medstead & Four Marks, Ropley and New Alresford. www.watercressonline.co.uk Morden Hall Park Snuff Mill (National Trust): Phipps Bridge Tram Stop ½ mile or park at

Riverside Café, off A24 & A297 south of Wimbledon and North of Sutton, 1200 - 1600. Museum of English Rural Life (MERL): Redlands Road, Reading, RG1 5EX. 0118 3788660, www.reading.ac.uk/merl/ Newcomen Society London: Fellows’ Room, Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD at 1745. Railway & Canal Historical Society: The Rugby Tavern, Rugby Street, London WC1, at 1830. www.rchs.org.uk Rural Life Centre: Old Kilns Museum, Tilford, Farnham, GU10 2DL, Wed - Sun, 1000 - 1700,

£6, over 60s £5, children 5-16, £4. www.rural-life.org.uk. SPAB Mills Section: [email protected]. Sussex Mills Group: www.sussexmillsgroup.org.uk/ The Spike: Warren Road, Guildford GU1 3JH, 100 - 1600, www.charlotteville.co.uk. Upminster Windmill: off A124 200m west of Upminster town centre, RM14 2YT, 1400 - 1700, www.upminsterwindmill.co.uk.

Cumbria Group to Visit Surrey

Friday 2 - Sunday 4 October 2009

SIHG is hosting a weekend visit to Surrey by the Cumbria Industrial History Group.

Members of SIHG will be welcome to attend many of the events.

Details from Alan Crocker, [email protected].

Diary July 2009

4 Sat Surrey Industrial History Group Visit Brunel Tunnel Exhibition (at 1000) + Whitechapel Bell Foundry (at 1400) (fully booked) Organizer: Tony Gregory, [email protected].

11 Sat SIHG AGM 2009 + Conservation Award Presentation to Kempton Great Engines Museum Snakey Lane Hanworth Middlesex TW13 6SH. Followed by a talk about the engines.


The Surrey Iron Railway: a Contemporary Russian Description

by Paul W Sowan

The Surrey Iron Railway, from Wandsworth to Croydon, was authorised by an Act of Parliament of 1801 (41 Geo. III. Cap. 33), and, it seems, formally opened throughout for traffic in 1803. It was, of course, a horse-drawn tramway and evidently conveyed only goods traffic. Somewhat surprisingly, it continued to serve Croydon until 1846, although that town had had a locomotive-hauled service of trains provided by the London & Croydon Railway since 1839.

Early descriptions in English

This plateway, being something of a novelty for the south of England, and the first railway to be sanctioned by an Act of Parliament, excited considerable interest. Quite lengthy descriptions were published in 1805 in James Malcolm’s Compendium of modern husbandry; in 1809 in William Stevenson’s General view of the agriculture of the County of Surrey; and much later, in 1831, in Joseph Priestley’s Historical account of the navigable rivers, canals and railways throughout Great Britain (a reprint was issued in 1971).

Descriptions in German and Russian

There was, indeed, international interest. In 1826 and 1827 two Germans, Karl August Ludwig Freiherr von Oeynhausen and Ernest Heinrich Karl von Dechen, visited England and wrote an account of railways seen during their tour, published in German in 1829. This work, translated into English, was republished by the Newcomen Society in 1971.

However, first off the mark was Leev Waxel [c. 1776 - c. 1816] the title of whose booklet, published in Russian at St Petersburg in 1805, can be rendered as Description of an iron road (iron rail way) established in the County of Surrey, in England, in 1802, contrived for the most convenient and easiest transportation of different goods and loads by horses. This has 25 pages and a large folded plate showing details of the plate rails and stone sleepers. A copy is held, at 1396.f.32, by the British Library. The author, Leon de Waxel as he appears in the British Library's catalogue, seems to have been, born in 1776 or 1777, and died in 1816 or 1817, according to various Russian National Biographies at the British Library, and was a senior engineer in the Russian Navy, interested in antiquities on the Black Sea shore, and numismatics, these being the subjects of his other published works held at St Pancras (both written in French). One of these, at least, has ‘With the author's most respectfull [sic] compliments’ written on the front cover, presumably in his own handwriting. He may perhaps have been a relative of the Swede Sven Vaksel

[???? - 1762] who served as an officer in the Russian Navy. The British Library also holds copies of his booklet Essai sur les médailles plaqueées des anciens published in London in 1809. His other known interests include antiquities of the Black Sea shore, and numismatics.

An English translation of the Russian text

The existence of Waxel’s booklet was noted by Derek Bayliss in his Retracing the first public railway first published in 1981. Indeed, Derek had an English translation made, by William Duck, who has made a copy available to me. Subsequently, I have acquired a second English translation. The Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society has expressed an interest in publishing the English text, and I am about to enter into discussion with the translators who, of course, own the copyright in their work; and with the British Library, whose permission would certainly be required to reprint the plate.

What does it say?

In the mean time, it seems worthwhile putting on record a brief outline of the contents of Waxel’s booklet. From my own point of view, the text is disappointing, as the line from Wandsworth to Croydon called for no heavy civil engineering works, and seems to have served no significant mineral industries. If only Waxel had returned a few years later to record some details of the Surrey Iron Railway’s legally distinct extension, the Croydon, Merstham & Godstone Iron Railway, and its Chipstead Valley embankment, Hooley cutting, limeworks at South Croydon and Merstham, and stone quarries at the latter place; but he didn’t!

However, the text will interest those wishing for details of the iron plates, stone sleeper blocks, road crossings, points for junctions and the economics of the concern. It opens with a recitation of the history of the line, the pros and cons of a railway rather than a canal and the then intended continuation to Portsmouth. Of particular interest, for comparative purposes, the author gives some details of a similar plateway, by then in operation at ‘the London Dock’, supplied to him by a Mr Vogon. Vogon, a transliteration from Russian, has been identified, by both translators, as almost certainly William Vaughan [1752 - 1850], an advocate or promoter of canal and dock schemes, especially serving London. However, not being strictly speaking an engineer, he seems not to have been judged to merit a main entry in either of the published volumes of the Institution of Civil Engineers’ Biographical dictionary of civil engineers, 1500 - 1830 or 1830 - 1890.

Perhaps the other interesting aspect of Waxel’s booklet is the plate. This shows, it seems without explanation, track of three different gauges. ¤


John William Grover (1836-1892)

by Peter Tarplee

I first came across JW Grover when I was researching the history of Leatherhead’s public water supply. The first works of the Leatherhead and District Water Company which were authorised by Parliament on 31 May 1883 were opened on 11 October 1884. The works consisted of the sinking of a well 200 feet deep, the construction of a steam-driven pumping station and the building of a covered reservoir on high ground to the edge of the town.

This work was carried out by Messrs Grover & Co and at an elaborate ceremony at the opening of the waterworks Grover pointed out that the new system at Leatherhead adjoins that of the Lambeth Water Company near Esher so there would be ample opportunity for the Leatherhead company to sell much of its plentiful supply of water to London.

John Grover was an engineer of the ‘Brunel’ variety who could, and did, do anything. He was born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, the only son of the rector of Hitcham, and after being educated at Marlborough and in Germany he was articled to Fox Henderson, a leading ironwork contractor, where he worked on the construction of Rochester Bridge and much of the Wiesbaden and Eltville Railway as well as the erection of the tank at the top of the northern tower of the Crystal Palace.

The first waterworks of the Leatherhead and District Water Company, opened in 1884, was built by Messrs Grover & Co.

After his pupillage he was employed by Mr (later Sir) John Fowler for whom he carried out surveys for railways in Portugal and Spain. Mr Fowler then recommended Grover as a draughtsman in the office of works of the government Department of Science and Art of which he soon became the head of the engineering and construction branch and chief draughtsman and clerk of works. Whilst here he directed the erection of the north and south courts at the South Kensington Museum, later the Victoria and Albert Museum. He carried out research into iron floors and arch-ribs in wrought iron as well as designing the domes for the 1862 Exhibition building. Whilst doing this work, at the request of the Council on Education, he produced a pamphlet on ‘Education and the Working Classes’.

In 1862, aged 26, Grover set up in business in Westminster as a consulting engineer and initially spent most of his time as a railway engineer both in Britain and abroad. He was engaged as Engineer for the construction of 27 miles of the Manchester and Milford Railway and of the Hemel Hempstead branch of the Midland Railway as well as in surveying lines in Europe and Mexico.

He designed a number of substantial iron structures at this time including Clevedon pier in Somerset and Kingsland Bridge over the Severn. Grover also assisted in the designs for the lecture theatre at the South Kensington Museum and for the Royal Albert Hall. Grover was Engineer for a number of Welsh railways as well as for the Westerham branch of the South Eastern Railway and in 1873 he went to Venezuala and laid out the mountain railway line from La Guaira to Caracus. He also carried out hydrographic surveys of the coast for harbour works.

On returning to England JW Grover gave up railway work to concentrate almost entirely on public water supply. He designed and constructed schemes for Bridgend, Westerham, Newbury and Speenhamland, Wokingham, Bracknell, Leatherhead and Rickmansworth and the Uxbridge Valley. He read a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers entitled ‘Chalk-Water Springs in the London

(Continued on page 6) The rescued marble statues of Sir Richard Atkins,

lord of the manor of Clapham, his wife.


contributed papers and to discussions. As well as being an engineer with many interests he was also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a vice-president of the British Archaeological Society. Between 1870 and 1892 Grover lived at 27 North Side, Clapham where he took a great interest in the history of the locality culminating in a lecture on ‘Old Clapham’ which he delivered in 1885 at the Clapham Hall. In fact, he is commemorated by a plaque on the south wall of Holy Trinity Church:

Basin’ which includes details of the natural sources of water in the area. In February 1892 he read a paper to the Surveyors’ Institute advocating the acquiring of additional sources of water supply from the chalk in the Thames area. Although he became an authority on water supply to the capital he also carried out surveys for water systems in the West Indies, Egypt, Austria, Denmark, Italy and Switzerland.

Grover took out a number of patents, probably the best-known is for Grover spring washers. He designed these to prevent the slackening of the bolts holding fish plates at permanent way joints and he obviously devised these during his railway work. The washers are made of high grade quality steel and are ordinary washers, split on one side and with the ends forced outwards and then tempered. It was said that where these washers were placed between the fishplate and the nut the resistance to unscrewing was increased from 100 lb to 3,000 lb. The washer causes the nut to bind in the bolt but it achieves locking without distorting the nut or weakening it with saw cuts as some other methods did.

He took out patents for machines for producing spring washers. To make these and other products he set up an engineering business at the Britannia Iron Works in St Peter Street, Wharf Road, City Road which he sold to G H Hunt in 1875. The company were engineers, ironfounders and 'patentees and sole manufacturers of Grover's spring washer nut-locks for securing nuts of fish-bolts etc'. This company moved to Britannia Works, Carpenters Road, Stratford in East London in 1915 where as well as making items such as 'Groverlok' tension pins or roll pins, they became major makers of stamp perforating and embossing machines for both British and overseas stamp printers. The firm finally closed in 2001 when their methods were overtaken by computer technology.

John William Grover was elected a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1865 where he

(Continued from page 5)

The rescued marble statues of Sir Richard Atkins’ children.

The plaque on the south wall of Holy Trinity Church commemorating John William Grover, Civil Engineer,.

Photos: Peter Tarplee

In Loving Memory of John William Grover F S A M Inst C E of Westminster And of Clapham Common

Who died August 23rd 1892 aged 56 years Only son of the late

Henry Montague Grover

Rector of Hitchum, Bucks

In the lecture he had described Holy Trinity Church as “an ugly, square, comfortable building.… built in an age when church architecture had reached its lowest depth”.

He is best known locally, however, for his involvement in the recovery of the Clapham marbles in St Paul’s Church. There had been impressive life-size marble statues of Sir Richard Atkins (lord of the manor of Clapham), his wife and three children in the original parish church but these had disappeared when the church was demolished and St Paul’s Church built on the site in 1815. Grover traced the vault in which the statues had been deposited, got permission to open it and arranged for the statues to be displayed again in the north transept of St Paul’s Church. His efforts in doing this were recorded on a marble tablet by the statues bearing the following inscription:

(Continued on page 7)


Survey of Water Pumping System at Cobham Park

No date has yet been fixed for a first visit to the site, but members interested in being involved are asked to contact Alan Crocker.

SERIAC 2009 South East Region Industrial Archaeology

Conference

Synopses of Talks Presented at the Conference,

organized by Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society

and held at the Guildhall, Winchester on 25 April.

Evoking the Memory of King Alfred Motor Services by James Freeman, Founder of FoKAB

James told the story of the King Alfred buses. He then described how the restoration of more than ten buses from the erstwhile fleet has motivated a group of some 250 people from many backgrounds to create the energetic Friends of King Alfred Buses (FoKAB), which now owns almost every King Alfred bus left in the world!

A 16th Century Search for Alum in the Isle of Wight by Rob Martin, Isle of Wight IA Society [www.iwias.org.uk].

Rob talked about the short-lived attempt to manufacture alum on the Isle of Wight in the 16th Century and its relationship with similar ventures in the Bournemouth/Poole area. In the 16th Century growing problems with supply and costs, brought on with the break from Rome, led to England searching for local sources from which to process alum. In 1564, Cornelius de Voz, a Dutchman

This Monument

Which had been immured in the year 1815 in a vault and forgotten,

Was, by the Exertions of JOHN WILLIAM GROVER

(F.S.A and M.INST.C.E.) of Clapham Common,

recovered with the assistance of a committee,

and the reverend f.w. atkins bowyer,

restored in the year 1886


living in London, was granted the sole right to search and mine for copperas and alum in England, where he had “founde sondrye mynes and owres of allome....specially within our Isle of Wighte”. Voz set up an alum works in the west of the Isle of Wight at Alum Bay. However, within several years, the patent had transferred to James Blount, Lord Mountjoy, who switched his search to the Bournemouth area. The talk looked at various aspects of alum: its chemical composition, source, manufacture, uses and economic and political significance, as well as the Island connection and the reasons for its failure.

Vintage Ports: the Future of Historic Dockyards by Dr Celia Clark, Defence Heritage Consultant

As armed forces in different countries are reduced and regrouped, significant historic industrial sites for national defence are on the closure list and available for transfer to civilian uses. Specialised industrial structures and pioneering new technologies: block cutting, corrugated iron, prefabricated multi-storey iron frame and panel structures, ship-testing tanks and reinforced concrete shell structures developed over many centuries. Who is to pay to sustain complex infrastructures: dock walls, culverts, basins, caissons, cranes? The private sector cannot do everything; public investment is required for the start-up phase and infrastructure until other sources of income emerge. Sustainable re-use cannot be achieved by too rapid, too profit-oriented disposal, but by imaginative, long term vision, public participation, mixed use and creative financing.

Subsequently the church has been modified and the transepts included in a community centre behind the church, but the marble statues were renovated in 1970 and re-positioned in the Lady Chapel where they remain.

His writings cover railway and waterworks construction as well as ‘Old Clapham’ (a copy of which is in the SyAS library), ‘Ancient Reclamations in the English Fenlands’ and ‘Suez Canals from the most Ancient Times’. He was a polymath who achieved much in his 56-year life. ¤


companies; the South Hants Water Company at Timsbury and Twyford, and the Winchester Water & Gas Company in Winchester. Water is still extracted at all four sites, but only Twyford remains complete with its original buildings which now form a Scheduled Ancient Monument (with the same status as Stonehenge!) looked after by Twyford Waterworks Trust.

Besides the talks, many industrial archaeology societies from the south east had interesting displays and literature stands, including SIHG. About 250 enthusiasts attended the conference.

Visit to Twyford Waterworks

After the Guidhall talks, a group travelled by vintage King Alfred bus to Twyford Waterworks. The stages of development of pumping power technology are represented from triple expansion steam, through diesel to electric motors. There is also a hydraulic engine, seen in action. Three massive, and very rare, water-tube boilers by Babcock & Wilcox are currently due to be restored after the removal of asbestos-bound brick walls. (A fund-raising campaign is underway.) A unique feature of the waterworks is a row of five lime kilns, two dating from 1903, the other three from 1930. The quick lime was used for water softening, a service offered to entice consumers to pay for a modern water supply. A set of Haines’ Patent Filters has recently been acquired to replace those lost to demolition. ¤

Francis Giles, Engineer - Success or Failure? by Dr Bill Fawcett, Railway Heritage Trust Panel

Bill’s talk was on the career of the civil engineer, Francis Giles [1787-1847] and examined whether the bad press he has received from some historians - notably LTC Rolt - can be substantiated. Giles was best known to contemporaries as a very able surveyor and route planner, frequently employed by John Rennie. His work reflects the transition from the Canal Age to the Railway Age, and he engineered a number of canals, harbours, including the first Southampton Docks, and railways. The latter included the Newcastle & Carlisle and London & Southampton Railways, but he was removed from both these schemes because of construction delays and cost over-runs. Do these problems, however, justify subsequent criticisms or were these the outcome of a propaganda campaign waged by George Stephenson, who never forgave Giles for his Parliamentary evidence against the first Liverpool & Manchester Railway Bill? After all, George was similarly removed from at least two railways: the Grand Junction and the Maryport & Carlisle.

Titchfield Canal or New River- A Matter of Interpretation? by John Mitchell, Portsmouth University

There is a traditionally held view, promulgated in various publications and websites, that in 1611, the 3rd Earl of Southampton financed the closure of the River Meon Estuary in Hampshire and the construction of a canal to the west of the river to maintain a navigable link between Titchfield and the sea. There is not a single unequivocal piece of evidence to support this assertion; there is much evidence however, which has been discounted or overlooked by historians in the past, to indicate that the closure works and construction of the watercourse were carried out much later and for a different purpose to that generally assumed. The presentation reviewed the evidence discovered to date and proposed an alternative interpretation of the new cut as feeding flood meadows for cultivation.

A Century of Clean Water Supply in South Hampshire by Dr Martin Gregory, Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society

The nineteenth century saw the provision of clean water supplies over much of Britain. In the south of Hampshire there were both private companies and municipal undertakings. The talk concentrated on Southampton Corporation at Otterbourne and two



Published by the Surrey Industrial History Group

and printed by Kall Kwik 9 Bridge Street Leatherhead KT22 8BL © SIHG 2009 ISSN1355-8188

SIHG is a group of the Surrey Archaeological Society, Registered Charity No 272098

Castle Arch Guildford Surrey GU1 3SX Group Patron: David Shepherd OBE, Group President: Prof AG Crocker FSA

Surrey Industrial History Group Officers

Chairman & SIHG Lectures Organiser: Robert Bryson, [email protected]

Secretary: Alan Thomas, [email protected]

Treasurer: (vacant)

Membership Secretary: David Evans, [email protected]

Newsletter Editor: Jan Spencer, [email protected]

Tadworth Post Mill - the Tallest in the UK by Alan Crocker

The back of the mill. Photo: Mildred Cookson.

The April 2009 issue of Mill News, the Newsletter of the Mills Section of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, has an interesting article on Tadworth post mill, said to be the tallest post mill in the UK. It notes that this mill has been looking very sorry for itself for several years and is in danger of falling down. However, the owner has now been served with an urgent repairs notice by Reigate and Banstead Council. The Council will now fund and carry out the necessary work themselves. This will include making the mill watertight and replacing missing and rotten weatherboarding, tailpole and ladder. It is estimated that the work will cost £37,000, which will be recouped from the owner, who has now said that he wishes the mill to be taken over by a trust. The work was due to start in late April.

A detailed account of the history of the mill is provided Farries KG & MT Mason in The Windmills of Surrey and Inner London, Charles Skilton, 1966. There may have been a mill on this site as early as 1295. By about 1800 there were two mills but one of these was demolished in 1890. The present mill lost two of its four sails in about 1893 but continued to work, assisted by a stationary steam engine, until in 1902. The remaining two sails fell off in 1921 but in 1966 the mill was said to have received careful maintenance for many years. Structural repairs completed in 1950 had made good damage done by a bomb and a flying bomb in the Second World War. Since then it appears that little work has been done on the mill but its future should now be ensured. It is located about 600 metres WSW of Kingswood Church at TQ 236 554.

See aerial views at www.sihg.org.uk > maps. ¤


sihg newsletter no 169 may 2009 diary advance notice … · the 34th series of sihg industrial...

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