Corn Street Mill

Situation
On the north side of Corn Street in Witney.

Physical structure
Corn Street was a substantial factory complex. In 1842 it consisted of a house, a close, weaving shop, bleaching house, yard and gardens [1]. The three storey Cotswold stone built weaving shop and store measured around 120ft by 18ft. Around 1850 John George also established a horse-powered spinning factory on or close to the Corn Street site. By the 1870s the factory housed thirteen spring looms and three ordinary looms but closed down about 1880 [2].

A fire in 1937 caused the factory site to be rebuilt, but only to two storeys high, by which time it was a commercial laundry. A further fire in October 1993 spelt the end for the Corn Street Mill building, as the area was cleared for a residential development known as Swan Court [3].

Owners
One of the oldest weaving families in Witney, the Colliers, owned and operated Corn Street Mill. The family was already known to be working in the town by the Tudor period and over time had many small workshops and premises there. Horatio Collier owned and ran the mill during the first half of the 19th century and the firm carried on here until 1878. The former workshop then became Leigh's agricultural works. From 1926-28 it was used as glove factory by Pritchett and Webley, then in 1929 the property became the premises for the Swan Laundry [4].

What was the site used for?
Corn Street Mill originally had no power source and was chiefly a workshop for handloom weavers rather than a complete mill. It was however one of the largest blanket factories in Witney during the early Victorian period. It ceased to be a blanket factory in 1870s and after this became a glove factory, an agricultural works and finally the laundry [5].

Clare Sumner