The chalk streams of Wessex are cherished by naturalists and fishermen on account of the quality and reliability of their water. For the same reason they have attracted mills. At one time the River Marden supported at least 14 mills of which five were situated in Calstone. Cloth, paper and snuff were milled as well as grain. Flour was loaded into barges at Calne Wharf for shipment to Bristol. The Marden rises at the foot of the Calstone Down from natural reservoirs deep beneath the chalk, and is only ten miles in length, joining the Avon just north of Chippenham.
Upper Mill (Toghill)
This was probably the property of Henry Fry, clothier of Calstone who died c. 1726. It was still owned by another man of the same name c. 1750, when it was a grist and fulling mill. In 1763 it was occupied by Richard Rogers, fuller, who insured the thatched building for £250. In 1786 Lord Lansdowne, who had succeeded the Duckett family as owner, let the mill to William Wright of High Wycombe, millwright, who rebuilt it and advertised it to let as a valuable new overshot paper mill, esteemed one of the most complete in the kingdom. Wright let it to Charles Ward of Duncombe Mill in North Wraxall. Subsequently members of the Huband family occupied it as a paper mill until 1860, when it was put up for sale. The mill was demolished before 1885 when a reservoir was made to supply water for Calne in 1882.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s Toghill was a family home and base of a thriving watercress industry (see Ann Rivers Davis’ “memories” for more information).
The building was renovated in 1947 by John Grierson and is now a private house.
Little Mill
Associated with Upper Mill was a mill ‘lately erected’ by Henry Fry c. 1740, probably on a site not previously occupied by a mill. Later in the century it was occupied by Henry Baily and distinguished as Fry’s Little Mill, as Robert Baily took it on a lease in 1775. This mill was east of East Farm on the tributary flowing north to the Marden. The site of the Pump House appears to be at the bottom of Spout Lane. The tributary runs from where it rises, near Wellington Barn, under the track in the field formerly named Papermill Bottom, into the ponds then under Barrow Hill down to the Marden.
Swaddon’s / Cove’s (between Upper and Calstone Mill)
Like Horsebrook Mill in Calne, this mill was evidently owned by the Swaddon family, prominent clothiers in the sixteenth century. In the middle of the eighteenth century it was held by Robert Franklin, a clothier who lived on the Green in Calne. In 1781 it was offered for sale, having two pairs of French stones and three pairs of stocks, occupied by a Mr Duck. Richard Rogers, who got into financial difficulties about 1784, succeeded him. In his time the mill had one over-shot wheel 8 or 9 ft. in diameter for the corn mill and two smaller breast-shot wheels for the stocks.
When Rogers left, the ownership of the mill passed to John Hayward of Marden, who employed a Devizes millwright, John Lane, to take out the whole inside of the mill and refit it as a corn mill only, driven by one wheel 12 ft. in diameter and 4 ft. wide. When this work was done Rogers was working as a labourer on the site, and pointed out a stake at the mill tail which marked the proper height of water there; the wheel was then arranged to run in nine inches of tail water which would not obstruct its working.
In the time of the next two millers, Robert Cove c. 1786-93, and James Ruddle c. 1794-1804, there were regular disputes and bickerings over the control of the water of the kind almost inevitable when mills stood so close. The owner of the mill below, Robert Baily, would close his hatches to allow his pond to fill as soon as the pond above was drawn. Almost immediately the mill above would be working in tail water and the miller would send down to complain, or go further and draw his own hatches completely simply to annoy Baily, for when this was done a flood of water poured down overflowing the trunks of Baily’s mill and damaging the cloths in it. The whole affair was settled by arbitration in 1804. Lower Mill was burnt down in 1805 and re-built in 1813
Swaddon’s Mill apparently remained a corn mill until about 1816 when it was taken over by the Hubands of the mill above and converted to a paper mill. The Dowding family who retained the mill for making paper until c. 1876 succeeded them. Nothing is left on the site. The mill was demolished before 1885 and this was presumably around the time of the reservoir being built in 1882.
Calstone / Lower / Wolheys Mill (now The Mill House)
Once known as Lower Mill, and before that Wolheys Mill, the Mill House site has an interesting history and like other mills of the Marden has a mention in Domesday Book. Records begin in 1545 when John Michell, who with his descendants lies in the village churchyard, acquired a water mill (known as Wolheys Mill). At that period it was described as “two fulling (cloth) mills and a grist (grinding) mill under one roof with a rack close adjoining”. The Michells prospered for 200 years.
The Baily family were in occupation from 1733 for a century and built the three-storied building that exists today, probably about 1750- the same era in which the White Horse was cut from the turf of Cherhill Down. By 1746 a garden and stable had been added to the description of the premises. A piece of bottle glass stamped “Rt Baily 1784” suggests that the proprietor brewed his own beverage.
In 1830 the mill was worked by five overshot wheels (water dropping onto the wheel) which drove two pairs of stones and the dressing machine (for cloth) and three gig mills (dressing with teasels), two pairs of stocks (dressing with hammers), twenty-two shearing frames and a brushing machine. Later it became simply a grist mill which was working until 1913. The wheel was melted down for munitions in World War Two.
Until early this century a vast wall of face chalk ran along the east side of the house to contain the mill pond. Remains are preserved underneath the brick arch below the swimming pool and can be discerned in the river bed. During excavations for the extension to the house on the north side, where the mill machinery once resided, evidence of a sluice was found, admitting water through this wall to power the wheel. The ‘D’ shaped pocket which once contained the wheel was discovered when the footings were being dug.
The extension on the south (river) side of the house served as a dairy for twenty five years. Local people can remember the milk round and walking down to the mill with a can to collect warm milk. Watercress was cultivated until recent times and sold from door to door. Nine grinding stones, some of them very fine French burrs (natural stone) are embedded in the forecourt.
The date of the Malt House is unknown but it is at least as old as the house. Its dimensions are spectacular (72 feet long). Its ten great pegged beams carry ancient ‘Chippies’ marks. It has been listed Grade Two by the Department of the Environment as has the Mill House itself.
Below is an invoice from Calstone Mill for bags of animal meal, dated March 1900
Spray’s Mill (close to Spray’s Farm)
This was a fulling mill by 1629, when it formed part of the Calne estates of the Ducketts of Hartham, and was let to Edward Duck, fuller. In the later seventeenth and early eighteenth century it was occupied by fullers named Hicks, and at least c. 1730-65 by Robert Sloper. It then had a dye-house attached. Like all the Duckett property, it passed into the ownership of Lord Lansdowne. By 1780 it had been converted for the grinding of snuff by the Devizes manufacturer, Benjamin Webb Anstie, who held it until 1805. A new twenty-one year lease was then made to Messrs Viveash of Calne, clothiers, at a rent of £30. Their machinery was offered for sale at their factory on the Green, Calne, in 1825, some having been removed from Calstone. It included two 36-in. and one 32-in. scribbling engines, four 30-in. carders, three tuckers, nine 80-in spindle jennies, four 50-spindle billies, seven shearing frames, a brushing machine, and a 42-in. grindstone for shears. Sprays Mill was offered to let with gig and fulling stocks, but was evidently converted to a corn mill shortly afterwards. Later in the nineteenth century it was used for the manufacture of mops.
The building was demolished in the 1950’s.
Below is an invoice from Spray’s Mill for 6 mops, dated March 20th 1900
