Water Mills

Mill wheel at Headley Mill

Mill wheel at Headley Mill (30K)

Headley Mill has been said to be the last commercially working water mill in Hampshire.

Notes by Mr. F. W. Simmonds of Rowledge: It has a breast-shot wheel, new in 1927 and until recently worked daily to drive modern animal and poultry food machinery. Above are four pairs of the old style mill stones, which are kept in working order and occasionally started up to demonstrate the ancient craft of milling. Nearly 4 ft. in diameter and 10 ins. thick, each stone scales about 15 cwt. The upper stone has to be perfectly balanced and adjusted to run close above the nether stone and the works as a whole form one of the most complete and latest sets of stone grinding machinery as it was before this system finally succumbed to the more efficient steel rollers.
Headley Mill is owned by Messrs. J. Ellis and Sons Ltd.

 

There is a scale model of Headley Mill at Haslemere Museum

For information on this and other water mills in Headley parish, see:—
• an extract from a proposed book by John Owen Smith (yet to be published)
• an article by Joyce Stevens

(For information on local paper mills see Alan Crocker's article)

Barford Mills - an article by Ted Croucher