Water Mills

Hi. Does anyone have pictures of the water mills that were at Walsgrave (site by the hospital) and Cheylesmore (Leaf Lane)? I remember seeing them, and children swimming in the mill ponds, they were fairly derelict, but may still have been lived in, must have been in the early 60's.

COVENTRY'S LAST WATERMILL This watermill stood at the side of the river Sowe, and a few yards off Aldermans Green Road. The meaning of a single stook of corn left in the field after the rest of the harvest had been carted. This was a very ancient English custom, indicating that gleaning may not take place until all the corn had been carted. The gleaners had the right to grind their corn. Before the days of machinery the water mills were used for several other purposes, this one powered looms, I believe it also was used for fulling? The water wheel moved wooden beaters, which pounded the cloth and thus removed certain impurities and thickened the fabric. Teasels teased the fabric to bring up the nap of the cloth, teasels placed in long racks, revolved, the teasels scratched up the surface of the cloth. All driven by the water wheel. I could only have been a toddler, when I was sat on sacks of grain and taken to the mill, here I would gawp as the huge sacks were hooked on chains, would lift off the ground, push through the wooden flaps of the floor above, and disappear. By the time I was twelve I would visit the mill with pony and trap collect sacks of animal feed (meal) or flour, a couple of times a week, the flour for the farmer's wife who made bread. This was part of my life until I was seventeen.

Mr Simpson. As you remember the mill you must also remember Faulconbridge the miller. Although a miller he ground the corn between huge flat stones, unlike the more modern method of crushing the corn between steel rollers. The miller placed a dam across the Sowe and allowed the water to build up across what is now Longford Park, then release the water to drive his mill. Do you remember inside the mill? Dark and dusty, cobwebs everywhere. Probably many spiders ended their days in the flour. Give it some body I suppose. The miller was quite tolerant to us kids as long as we didn't go round the back where the water left the wheel and fell into a deep dark pool. Dangerous I suppose. Sadly the miller's house, the mill and grounds have all gone. Replaced by little boxes, little boxes all the same.

Watermills go back to the Doomsday Book. It had to be Coventry's oldest work place by centuries, and possibly working before any building in Coventry, still standing, was built. Maybe like Trigger's broom it had many replacements, but nevertheless it had great history. Drought was its only enemy until Coventry Council came along, even invaders did not destroy watermills, they put them to use.

By weird chance I visited an old flour mill today to get inspiration and technical knowledge for my model. They are a miracle of engineering. This image posted by Anne is labelled as adjacent to the priory mill and it was next to a later mill but plotting where it stood, this possibly housed the older mill. It's very similar to a known mill parallel to it, next to Priory Street. For a while I mixed them up.

Is there a Mill Street in Coventry? Nauls Mill Park?

Cox Street used to be Mill Lane, leading to Bastille or Earls Mill.

Yes there is a Mill Street, between Middleborough Road and Abbott's Lane, and quite close to Naul's Mill Park.

The small lane down to Aldermans Green mill was known to us as 'mill lane'. Sometime around 1938 my 'boss' was talking to Mr Faulconbridge about old cereal prices, he invited us into his house, here he had a small room, full of books, documents and photographs, prices going back centuries, photographs of broken wheels, changes of wheels, pulleys, chains etc., documents on what he could do to, and use of, the river, workings of old looms, a million and one things about the mill, also the historic house he lived in. My 'boss' also had documents about his farm that stretched back centuries. When they pull these places down does no one visit first and collect this historic stuff? I have no idea about demolition.

Where the BM store now stands on Ansty Rd was once Newsome's garage. My sister married the manager. Almost opposite was was Sowe Mill. It was still working 1948ish. I remember it well. Then there was Henley Mill off Henley Rd. The miller was found dead in his own mill pond. Did he fall or was he pushed? No one knows. Four Pounds Mill was behind where the rugby ground now is but a little nearer to the railway line. It was so named because of its four pounds or pools, hence Four Pounds Avenue.

Bit of a delay in the request for images of mills in the Walsgrave area but this one has just turned up on FB. I can’t see it on Old Maps. The only one in the area by today's hospital I can find is labelled as Sowe Mill - is this the same one?

I'd think that they were the same. I'd be more sure if Old Maps wasn't painfully slow right now.

Yes I had that problem with it yesterday as well Helen!

Water Mill? Wasn't it turned to engine power the last few years?

It could be Kaga, some of them were but we know very little about this one.