Farm Mill

Situation
Spanning the River Windrush on a track known as Farm Mill Lane, on the east side of Witney.

Physical structure
The existing building here was part of a three-storey watermill built across the river. It probably dates from around 1800. The main block was built of Cotswold stone with a low-pitched gable roof covered in grey Welsh slates. Two-storey brick and stone extensions were added to this block during the Victorian period but have since been demolished [1]. The building, which remains standing but derelict at the time of writing, probably dates from the early 19th century.

Owners
From its early Medieval origins, Farm Mill and its forerunners had numerous tenants and sub-tenants who carried out a range of businesses on this site. A mill stood on the site of Farm Mill by the 1220s and was known then as Walens or Waleys Mill. It originally seems to have been a corn mill but around 1251 we know that Waleys Mills was running as two mills (one for corn and one for fulling) and that it was held by the same two men who also held the Woodford Mill lease at that time. Though it was still called Wallis Mill around 1646, by 1695 it was recorded as Farm Mill [2].

Farm Mill, the upstream side of the mill race.

From 1736 it was let by Lord Cornbury for seven years to the Witney mercer and wool stapler Edward Witts for £35 a year. At least two succeeding generations of Witts' family carried on the let after him. By 1813 Messrs Hankins and Company were using the mill, then sometime before 1841 the blanket manufacturer Edward Early acquired the lease. He may have been responsible for rebuilding the current surviving mill after it was burnt down in 1837 and continued to have an interest here until the 1860s [3].

In the early 1870s the mill was converted and used for a short time by the firm of J.W. Gardner for making bone meal for agricultural use. In 1887 A.L. Leigh, a Witney corn dealer, operated Farm Mill for around 15 years for flour making using water and steam power. Walker and Atkinson Limited who were corn millers succeeded them for the next 20 years. Around 1952 the freehold was sold off by the Duke of Marlborough, at which time it still contained an undershot waterwheel and other machinery. In 1966 it was bought by Oxfordshire County Council who used it as a records store for some time before selling it in 1998 [4].

What was the site used for?
There seems to have been more than one Medieval mill that stood on, or close to, the site of Farm Mill. Both corn and fulling mills were operating here by the 13th century although corn grinding ceased by the end of the 14th century [5]. Fulling appears to have continued here until the 18th century, so Farm Mill has a long history of involvement in the cloth trade. It only seems to have been used as a blanket mill for a relatively short period by Edward Early and by 1861 he was using it as a mop factory [6]. By 1916 it had come full circle and once again became a corn mill; it ceased to function as a mill during the 1950s.

Clare Sumner