In 2015 I hapened to be chatting to a history teacher from Lancaster. Our conversation was to do with a potential WW1 related site but turned to a few other bits and pieces. One such thing was a ruinous building close to where he lived but which he couldn't interpret (too many years sticking to a curriculum sylabus I feel!). Arrangements were made that I would go and meet him there.
Immediately I pulled out some of my maps and it's clear the place was a mill - that wasn't hard. On first view it only took seconds to recognise it as a mill even if the maps hadn't told me. Surprisingly there isn't much information about it.
There is a reference in the Morley papers to ownership of a mill at Nether Wennington in 1649. Thomas Morley and his son Francis Morley specifically mention the property in wills. The exact location of this is not known but it seems reasonable to suggest it would be close to the current remains.
The wooden beam lintels suggest the current remains are at least in part very old but dressed stone and differences in mortar show that modifications/repairs were carried out over a long period.
Baines Directory of 1824 records a miller
First edition Ordnance Survey 1847 shows the building marked as Wennington Mill
The 1849 tithe appointments for the village show:
Plot number: 216
Owner: Pudsey Dawson esquire
Occupier: John Lambert
Plot description: Corn Mill, Dam & Waste
Usage:
Size:
Acres:
Roods: 1
Poles: 28
Census returns show:
1841 John Lambert is shown as an Inn Keeper
1851 Farmer of 72 acres
1861 Farmer 66 acres / Corn and Flour Dealer
In 1871 his widow Margaret (Barnett) is shown as ‘widow of corn dealer’
This suggests that though John is listed as the occupier he was not the miller. Historically there is often a connection between inn keeping, milling and baking. There are other people listed with ‘miller’ as their occupation but these could have been at Wennington Mill, Moss House Farm or, less likely, Low Bentham Mill or Greeta Mill.
Pudsey Dawson was from Liverpool and owned a lot of land around Tatham/Melling/Bentham
History, Topography, and Directory of Westmorland, and of the Hundreds of Lonsdale and Amounderness in Lancashire. by Mannex & Co. [1851] page 533 shows Thomas Harrison as a miller (this could be at the new steam powered mill) and John Lambert as a Corn and Flour Dealer in Wennington.
The 1894 OS map shows that the mill was still in use and I can find no definitive date for when it went out of use (though the current owners family have owned the site since the 1800's and do have paperwork in a safety deposit box)
The 196x Lancashire aerial survey images shows that the mill was in ruins before then
In 2016 the mill exists as a ruined shell of a building. There is visual evidence of a leat, mill pond, overflow sluice, head race and tail race. All appear to be silted up to a depth of several feet. There is evidence to suggest two wheels. One undershot wheel in a now removed wheelhouse over an open race and a second on the Northern side of the building in a wheel chamber that is extant but generally hidden from view. The wheel chamber also appears to be for an undershot wheel with sloping head race. A single millstone is abandoned outside the main mill building. There is almost no sign of the missing building fabric which suggests that other local buildings benefited from the demise of the mill.
There is evidence of ‘gardening’, ie. The mill area was at some point used for recreation. The small metal road gate, the perfectly positioned millstone and the internal steps (which are too large, too shallow and the bottom step is where the gearing and shafts from one of the wheels would have been.
Standing in the pond looking at the mill
Axle entry from race into mill
Tailrace
Evidence of upper floor and door to current road level
Blocked doorway (would have allowed access to second wheel flow sluice)
Gardened interior, stone floor would have been above here
Main cartway entrance looking out to sloping track and pond to right
Grit millstone
Pond overflow sluice
Wennington and the surrounding area are full of interesting little bits and pieces, numerous mills, a railway turntable (part of a garden now but very obvious), model farm with mill, smithy etc.
Immediately I pulled out some of my maps and it's clear the place was a mill - that wasn't hard. On first view it only took seconds to recognise it as a mill even if the maps hadn't told me. Surprisingly there isn't much information about it.
There is a reference in the Morley papers to ownership of a mill at Nether Wennington in 1649. Thomas Morley and his son Francis Morley specifically mention the property in wills. The exact location of this is not known but it seems reasonable to suggest it would be close to the current remains.
The wooden beam lintels suggest the current remains are at least in part very old but dressed stone and differences in mortar show that modifications/repairs were carried out over a long period.
Baines Directory of 1824 records a miller
First edition Ordnance Survey 1847 shows the building marked as Wennington Mill
The 1849 tithe appointments for the village show:
Plot number: 216
Owner: Pudsey Dawson esquire
Occupier: John Lambert
Plot description: Corn Mill, Dam & Waste
Usage:
Size:
Acres:
Roods: 1
Poles: 28
Census returns show:
1841 John Lambert is shown as an Inn Keeper
1851 Farmer of 72 acres
1861 Farmer 66 acres / Corn and Flour Dealer
In 1871 his widow Margaret (Barnett) is shown as ‘widow of corn dealer’
This suggests that though John is listed as the occupier he was not the miller. Historically there is often a connection between inn keeping, milling and baking. There are other people listed with ‘miller’ as their occupation but these could have been at Wennington Mill, Moss House Farm or, less likely, Low Bentham Mill or Greeta Mill.
Pudsey Dawson was from Liverpool and owned a lot of land around Tatham/Melling/Bentham
History, Topography, and Directory of Westmorland, and of the Hundreds of Lonsdale and Amounderness in Lancashire. by Mannex & Co. [1851] page 533 shows Thomas Harrison as a miller (this could be at the new steam powered mill) and John Lambert as a Corn and Flour Dealer in Wennington.
The 1894 OS map shows that the mill was still in use and I can find no definitive date for when it went out of use (though the current owners family have owned the site since the 1800's and do have paperwork in a safety deposit box)
The 196x Lancashire aerial survey images shows that the mill was in ruins before then
In 2016 the mill exists as a ruined shell of a building. There is visual evidence of a leat, mill pond, overflow sluice, head race and tail race. All appear to be silted up to a depth of several feet. There is evidence to suggest two wheels. One undershot wheel in a now removed wheelhouse over an open race and a second on the Northern side of the building in a wheel chamber that is extant but generally hidden from view. The wheel chamber also appears to be for an undershot wheel with sloping head race. A single millstone is abandoned outside the main mill building. There is almost no sign of the missing building fabric which suggests that other local buildings benefited from the demise of the mill.
There is evidence of ‘gardening’, ie. The mill area was at some point used for recreation. The small metal road gate, the perfectly positioned millstone and the internal steps (which are too large, too shallow and the bottom step is where the gearing and shafts from one of the wheels would have been.
Standing in the pond looking at the mill
Axle entry from race into mill
Tailrace
Evidence of upper floor and door to current road level
Blocked doorway (would have allowed access to second wheel flow sluice)
Gardened interior, stone floor would have been above here
Main cartway entrance looking out to sloping track and pond to right
Grit millstone
Pond overflow sluice
Wennington and the surrounding area are full of interesting little bits and pieces, numerous mills, a railway turntable (part of a garden now but very obvious), model farm with mill, smithy etc.
