Three Bridge Mill
Heading back into the archives a lil bit for this one. It's been covered on here a few times but it's right up my street as it's water related. A great find from Mookster.
Not a huge amount oh history available. Apparently it was originally owned by the Burton family in the eighteen century. It was then taken over by the Taylor family.
Three Bridge Mill has been vacant after the owner, Norman Taylor died on 25th November 2011 aged 89. The mill building itself has been unused for much longer than that. The equipment looks aincent.
The majority of the equipment inside was supplied by WS Barron & Sons who were based in Gloucester. The building was powered by water driven generators situated in a little area below the main building. The water course used to power this is called Padbury Brook, which spans for 12km and is a tributary of the River Great Ouse.
The mill and attached house has since been sold for over £700k, there are a few letters inside addressed to the new owners, but nothing major seems to have happened to the building since being purchased.
During an archaeological dig, a very rare early 'Roman anthropomorphic or humanlike wooden carved figure' was discovered. The dig is being carried out as part of the HS2 plans which run very close to the site.
An extract from the HS2 Site states "Initial assessment dates the wooden figure to the early Roman period, given the style of the carving and the tunic-like clothing. Shards of pottery dating from 43-70 AD were also discovered in the same ditch. Whilst archaeologists cannot be certain about what the carved figure was used for, there have been examples of wooden carved images being offered as gifts to the gods. It is possible that rather than being casually discarded in the ditch it was more deliberately placed there"
I've linked the site at the bottom of the report because it's quite an interesting find.
A new roof has been put onto the mill but unsure if the current owners have done this, or if it was the previous owners. Damp has set into the attached house, there wasn't much of interest in that bit. A nice Aga left in the kitchen and a couple of intriguing fireplaces.
Starting on the most appealing middle floor. I believe this is some kind of grain or corn cutter.
Moving up to the top floor. There would have been lots of hoisting equipment up here originally. Only a couple of pulley systems remained.
Heading down to the first floor. There is still power in the building, as made evident by the red light on the meter to the right of the photograph.
Looking out towards where Padbury Brook exits
Into the residential side of the building. Not much of interest here, so I've only included a couple of detail shots, I wish I would've got a photo of the whole kitchen as it was quite cool and art Deco.
Finishing with a shot of the back of the mill. The beautiful spring Bluebells sprouting up.
An old photo found on a Facebook group. This was supposedly taken in 1924 and shows Robert Taylor and his two sons, Bob and Ronald punting on the water out the front of the mill.
Heading back into the archives a lil bit for this one. It's been covered on here a few times but it's right up my street as it's water related. A great find from Mookster.
Not a huge amount oh history available. Apparently it was originally owned by the Burton family in the eighteen century. It was then taken over by the Taylor family.
Three Bridge Mill has been vacant after the owner, Norman Taylor died on 25th November 2011 aged 89. The mill building itself has been unused for much longer than that. The equipment looks aincent.
The majority of the equipment inside was supplied by WS Barron & Sons who were based in Gloucester. The building was powered by water driven generators situated in a little area below the main building. The water course used to power this is called Padbury Brook, which spans for 12km and is a tributary of the River Great Ouse.
The mill and attached house has since been sold for over £700k, there are a few letters inside addressed to the new owners, but nothing major seems to have happened to the building since being purchased.
During an archaeological dig, a very rare early 'Roman anthropomorphic or humanlike wooden carved figure' was discovered. The dig is being carried out as part of the HS2 plans which run very close to the site.
An extract from the HS2 Site states "Initial assessment dates the wooden figure to the early Roman period, given the style of the carving and the tunic-like clothing. Shards of pottery dating from 43-70 AD were also discovered in the same ditch. Whilst archaeologists cannot be certain about what the carved figure was used for, there have been examples of wooden carved images being offered as gifts to the gods. It is possible that rather than being casually discarded in the ditch it was more deliberately placed there"
I've linked the site at the bottom of the report because it's quite an interesting find.
A new roof has been put onto the mill but unsure if the current owners have done this, or if it was the previous owners. Damp has set into the attached house, there wasn't much of interest in that bit. A nice Aga left in the kitchen and a couple of intriguing fireplaces.
Starting on the most appealing middle floor. I believe this is some kind of grain or corn cutter.
Moving up to the top floor. There would have been lots of hoisting equipment up here originally. Only a couple of pulley systems remained.
Heading down to the first floor. There is still power in the building, as made evident by the red light on the meter to the right of the photograph.
Looking out towards where Padbury Brook exits
Into the residential side of the building. Not much of interest here, so I've only included a couple of detail shots, I wish I would've got a photo of the whole kitchen as it was quite cool and art Deco.
Finishing with a shot of the back of the mill. The beautiful spring Bluebells sprouting up.
An old photo found on a Facebook group. This was supposedly taken in 1924 and shows Robert Taylor and his two sons, Bob and Ronald punting on the water out the front of the mill.
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