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Background information on the two Painswick Mills
Article to Painswick Beacon
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Background information on the two Painswick Mills
Location: Gloucestershire
Sources: Colleen Haine articles on Mills on the Painswick Stream and the Victoria County History (Painswick Economic History).
Early mills
The Domesday Book in 1086 refers to 4 mills in the Parish of Painswick but these would most probably have been corn mills. At this time mills normally belonged to the Lord of the Manor, who benefited from their rental.
By 1496 there were 7 mills, at least one (Salmons) was held by a clothier family (Bliss) even though the use is not specified.
In 1608 (Men and Armour) there were 4 clothiers and 33 weavers and 10 tuckers out of male pop of 180 in the Parish.
By 1700 there were 15 mills along Painswick stream and its tributaries.
Early 19thC some 31 mills of which 27 concerned with cloth.
The two mills we are visiting today were two of the earliest mills, which at times in their history have both been known as Painswick Mill. Further information on other mills is available on-line from the Victoria County History.
The mill was held from the Manor (as copyhold) by the Taylor family during the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1698 Rev. Edward Taylor leased the two corn water mills to Francis Hayward (alias Westropp).
It was inherited by John and Samuel Mills, Edward Taylor’s nephews and sold by Samuel Mills in 1749 to John Pinfold of Salmons Mill. Although he was in the cloth trade there is no evidence of such activity here. The mill was passed by him to Sarah Webb, the wife of Samuel Colborne and then inherited in 1813 by the Rev. Colbourne. The Colbourne family owned substantial property in Painswick.
William Skinner worked it as a corn mill from 1787, where the family continued until 1885 when it taken over by G A Hawkes also for corn milling, making cattle feed.
Painswick Mill, Cooks Mill or Masons Mill
The Webb family (of The Hill) built a house here dated 1634 with their cloth mark over the door and the initial H.W. probably Henricus Webb, but at the moment it is not certain whether a mill was already established here before that date. The mill was still in the ownership of John Webb in 1699 but appears to have been sold shortly afterwards, as the recorded tenant was John Harris, then at Cooks Mill.
In 1725 Mrs. Sarah Cook was advertising the mill for sale (still tenanted by John Harris) but it was not sold. The property comprised the house, two fulling stocks, a gig-mill, dye-house, furnace and tenter racks. Sarah Cook left the Mill to her son Richard Cook on her death in 1741; at that time it also included a grist mill and cider-mill. She also owned Steanbridge Mill in Slad, together with other estates. This is quite typical of the clothier families who often owned several mills at any one time.
John Gardner was the owner from 1784 to 1798 with a succession of tenants (John Merrett, then Perring and William King who also had King’s Mill) until 1796 when Richard Mason took over the tenancy then ownership in 1798. The mill was offered to let along with Brookhouse serving as a dwelling intermittently, along with Beacon House (built by the Mason family in the late 18th century). Richard Mason’s wife remarried a Jacob Chamberlain, who went bankrupt in 1811.
The mill was offered for sale but must have not been sold and Edward Mason was recorded there as owner and tenant from 1817 to1825, while living at Beacon house. It was offered to let in 1824, having three water wheels and three gig mills, a steam engine and a substantial dwelling, indicating considerable expansion during the 18th century.
The mill was let to Joseph Wight from 1824 to1840 and cloth production continued. The Wight family worked a number of mills (Robert Wight at Brookhouse and Cap Mill, John Wight at Sheepscombe). After being vacant for three years the mill was let for a short period to Thos Barrett before Trotmans took over to make hooks and eyes, followed b Jones and Co. silk throwers.
A new period of activity, under W.H.Cole and Co. making pins from 1870 onwards was praised in an article in Industrial Gloucestershire in 1904, for showing resourcefulness in the face of changing conditions. It was one of several such mills along this Valley. Coles pin mill closed 1920.
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