This history of the four Stotfold Watermills is reproduced by kind permission of  Bert Hyde

Introduction

Since writing the original booklet on Stotfold water mills I feel I have found sufficient new material to justify a revised version.  The first half of this essay is an attempt to present the evidence gathered in part by Stotfold local history class about early Stotfold water mills in some sort of logical order.  Our tutor was Mrs. Carol Parry who used to be an archivist at the Bedfordshire County Record Office.  Although it is a detailed study in local history I have done my best to make it interesting.  The second half is a straightforward history of Taylor’s mill and Randall’s mill.

I have not included Astwick mill as the story of that mill has already been well told in the book, ‘The Bowman Story 1857-1957’.

Revised edition 2001

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Mr. Sam Randall for all his help with the section on Randall’s Mill. Thanks are also due to Mr. Edward Hyde for the map of Stotfold mill sites and to Mr. Wally Griffen and Mr. Gordon Huckle for loan of photographs.

Abbreviations

B.H.R.S.  =   Bedfordshire Historical Record Society
C.R.O.     =   Bedfordshire County Record Office
H.C.R.O. =   Hertfordshire County Record Office
V.C.H.     =   The Victoria County History of Bedfordshire

Preamble

In order to follow the first part of my essay it is necessary to know something about the manor.  Therefore for those of my readers who have no knowledge of local history I give the following explanation.  Strictly speaking a manor is not a house but a unit of old time estate management.  The holder, who usually lived in the principal house, was known as the lord of the manor.  Sometimes the lord was not a person but a religious foundation or a college.  The lord had various rights over the land and tenants.  There was a court leet which dealt with petty crimes and a court baron which had to do with matters of property.  The records of these courts were called the manor court roll or book. 

A parish could contain several manors.  Stotfold had three; the large and important Brayes manor, the somewhat smaller Newnham manor and the Rectory manor ,which was smaller still.  Although Brayes manor had a secular lord; Newnham manor was owned by Newnham Priory, near Bedford and the Rectory manor was owned by Chicksands Priory near Shefford.  Of course, this ownership changed at the Dissolution of the monasteries (1536/1539).

The Beginning

The water wheel was probably introduced to England by the Romans.  In late Saxon times almost every manor had its mill.  The lords of the manor had a milling monopoly and the peasants were forced to take their corn to be ground in the manorial mill.  By the time of the Domesday Survey which was completed in 1087, there were 103 mills in Bedfordshire.

The Domesday Entry

According to the Domesday book Stotfold was held by Hugh de Beauchamp, Baron of Bedford.  There were 4 water mills in the village.  This may  sound  a  surprising number but in those days mills could be fairly close together.(1)

The total value of rent paid to the lord of the manor for the 4 mills was £4 and 400 eels annually.  Eels were an important food in those days.  Presumably they were cured, dried and tied in bundles. 

All four mills were of course on the river Ivel, which runs through the eastern outskirts of the village.

1.  Ref. “Bedfordshire and Domesday”, B.H.R.S. Quarto Memoir, 1922 vol. 1, by G. Herbert Fowler, p.72

Newnham Manor Mill

One of the Domesday mills went to form the endowment of Stotfold Newnham manor and is mentioned in the conformation charter of William de Beauchamp approx. 1220-60.

Simon Lidlington granted to Newnham the rent of 4s 6d for the mill at the ford of Stotfold 1200-20.(1)  A confirmation of this grant of approximately the same date mentions a certain Ingellburtus holding the mill.

 In 1392 a confirmation by Thomas Lord Mowbray of grants of his ancestors to Newnham specially mentions 4s 6d yearly rent from the mill at the ford of Stotfold.

We have found no allusions after 1392 to this mill by the ford.  In 1519 the possessions of Newnham manor are listed  without mention of a mill.(2)  This suggests that the mill by the ford had ceased working by 1519.

There is no reason to suppose that the site of this mill by the ford was other than where the old ford used to be  i.e. where Ford bridge now is.

1.  Ref. V.C.H. p. 302

2.  Ref. B.H.R.S. vol. 40, p.24.

The Second Mill

Another of the mills (perhaps it would be better to think of mill sites rather than mills) in the Domesday Survey appears to have been part of the grant of the de Beauchamps to Chicksands Priory.

There is a mention of this mill at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII.  In the accounts of the Court of Augmentations for Bedfordshire (1536/7) it says that at that time Chicksands owned a farm, manor and rectory in Stotfold and also another farm with a water mill. The farm and manor were held by William Freeman, the farm and water mill by John Roberts.(1) 

Chicksands surrendered  voluntarily on 22nd Oct. 1538.  How its possessions were disposed of by the king is not altogether clear.  The farm, manor and rectory were given to Trinity College, Cambridge.  What happened to the farm of the water mill I do not know but the mill itself was later acquired by a certain Edward Butler who owned Stotfold Brayes and Stotfold Newnham manors.  From then on it remained part of those two manors until 1795 when it was sold by the then lord of the manor Richard Warburton Lytton.(2) As we shall see this was the mill which eventually became known as Taylor’s mill.

1.  See B.H.R.S. vol. 63 p.48.  The mill is said to lie between Frenche Close and Rusch Close. Unfortunately we have been unable to locate these two pieces of land.

2.  See V.C.H. p. 302.

The Third Mill

Our explanation of the first two Domesday mills is based partly on the account of Stotfold mills in the Victoria County History of Bedfordshire p. 302.  It could only find references to three of the four Domesday mills.  Its third mill was a single reference when in 1406 John Wedewessen and Alice his wife granted their water mill in Stotfold to Simon Wedewessen their brother.

The Fourth Mill

A document of 1376 (1)  mentions another early Stotfold water mill.  In a description of the run down state of Stotfold Brayes manor house and its compound, it says, “There is a water mill of which the building and the necessary parts below were satisfactory, but the pond and the bridge across the watercourse in the King’s highway and the foundation of the mill near the water are in great need of repair.” 

Obviously this mill adjacent to Brayes manor house is not one of the three mills mentioned above.  It is the fourth Domesday mill.

1.   Ref: Calendar of Inquisitions Misc. Vol. 111. File 208(7).

The Mill At The Spinney

This brings us to a second Brayes manor mill.  A list of tenants of Brayes manor made in 1540 says that John Squire rented “the mill at the Spinney” from Lord Bray.(1) The present Spinney is near to the river and to Stotfold Bury House. 

The 1376 mill was close to Brayes manor house, which we have reason to believe was where Bury House now stands.  It seems likely therefore that the Brayes manor mill of 1376 and the Brayes manor mill at the Spinney were one and the same.

1.   Ref. C.R.O. HA511

A Copyhold Mill

The only other allusion we have found to an early Stotfold mill is to a mill held by copyhold.  Copyhold is a right of holding land or property according to the custom of the manor, by copy of the manor roll originally made by the steward of the lord’s court.  So a record was kept of when the ownership of copyhold property changed hands – the admissions and the surrenders of property. 

Obviously provided one can find the appropriate manor court books these entries can still be traced.  Our present early mill reference is a case in question and is also a good illustration of how the copyhold system worked. 

Richard Page wrote a letter on 5th April (1516) to Master Daniel, steward of Brayes manor court saying that a surrender had been presented at the last court for Stotfold by Peter Thorp miller, who surrendered Stotfold mill to the use of the writer.  He requests that the present letter be taken as a surrender of the property and that a copy be made out for the admission of Richard Lorymer (1) to the mill.(2)

Looking backward in time it is not easy to see how this allusion fits in with a four mill scheme.  It cannot be the Brayes manor mill at the Spinney of 1540 as that was rented whereas this one is copyhold.  Perhaps it is the 1406 Wedewessen mill.  On the other hand looking forward as it is clearly a Brayes manor copyhold mill it is almost certainly the forerunner of Randall’s mill which was also copyhold of Brayes manor.

1.  Richard Lorymer was tenant of Newnham manor farm.  Ref: B.H.R.S. vol. 40. P. 42.  He died in 1529 and C.R.O. holds his will but there is no mention of a mill.

2.  Ref: C.R.O. HA501(6)

Four Mills

In its account of Stotfold water mills the Victoria County History of Bedfordshire has tried to trace, using documents alone, the four Stotfold mills mentioned in the Domesday Survey.  In my view a more valid method would be to try to identify mill sites.  It will have been noticed that in our essay so far we have pinpointed four sites; Randall’s mill site, the site of the mill at the Spinney (Blue Corner), the site by the ford and Taylor’s mill site.  Now we will attempt tentatively to line up the mill references with the four mill sites.

Admittedly some of this is pure speculation.  After all there may have been five or more mill sites in Stotfold over the years not just four as at Domesday and Randall’s mill site seems awfully close to the mill at the Spinney.  However, in some ways our evidence is good.  Nevertheless as this kind of exercise could cause endless debate I think we had better move on.

Two Mills

Although as we have seen in the early days there were four mills in Stotfold, in more recent times there have been only two.  The first we know of this for certain is in 1707.  In that year a list of all the lands and tithes, etc. belonging to Stotfold vicarage (1)  said “There are two water mills in the parish, each of which pays to the Vicar ten shillings per annum.”

A map of 1765 confirms that there were only two mills in the  village.  They are shown on the map as occupying the sites of Taylor’s mill and Randall’s mill.  We will now deal with these two mills in turn starting with Taylor’s mill.

1.   Ref. “A History of Stotfold”, by Rev. G.C.H. Phillips, 1951 pp. 29/30.

Taylor's Mill

For a long time Taylor’s mill formed part of Brayes and Newnham manors.  It will be helpful therefore to say something about the ownership of these two manors as we go along.  By 1624 they had fallen into the hands of the Lytton family of Knebworth House, near Stevenage, Herts.  The lord of the manor in 1747 was John Robinson Lytton and in that year a description of extent of the manors mentions a water corn mill.(1) That mill was of course the mill which later became known as Taylor’s mill.

Although it was owned by the lord of the manor it was let out on lease. The first leasee of whom we know is Edward Whitehead miller and farmer. He is entered as occupier in the land tax return of 1783. The then lord of the manor Richard Warburton Lytton is down as proprietor. 

On 21st November of the same year Mr. Whitehead took out an insurance with Royal Exchange Fire Insurance, Policy no. 88036.(2) It said, “On a water corn mill and dwelling house, timber and tiled, and on the mills therein situate £100. On utensils and stock in trade £100".

On 5th February 1789 Edward Whitehead put his lease up for sale at an  auction held at the George Inn, Baldock. The sale document said, “The lease of a watermill at Stadfold within two miles of Baldock, which will break about 150 loads of wheat per week (3) with a dwelling house, etc.; nine years of the lease were unexpired at Michaelmas last, at the very low yearly rent of £18.” The lease was purchased by another Whitehead, probably a relative, named Edmund Whitehead.

John Robinson Lytton died in 1762 and in 1795 his heir Richard Warburton Lytton and others, put up for sale seven of the Lytton properties, including Taylor’s mill and the Stotfold manor.  The mill was to be sold separate from the manor.  The notice of sale said, “Stotfold Mills, with the mill house, the mill bank and a piece of inclosed meadow land containing 4 acres.  Also three pieces of Lammas (4) land adjoining thereto containing 11½ acres.  The whole freehold.  The present annual value is £24 less £4.4s land tax.  This lot is under lease to Edmund Whitehead 4 years of which will be unexpired at Michaelmas 1795.”  The sale took place in the chambers of Edward Leeds at Lincolns’ Inn, London on 24th March 1795.  Edmund Whitehead the miller bought the mill and he continued to own it until 1804, when it was purchased by the Fordham family of Odsey manor near Ashwell, Herts.

In 1814 Mr. John Taylor snr. Aged 35 from Meldreth, Cambs. came to the mill as foreman miller for Mr. Fordham.  One source says that he came as farm bailiff at nearby New Inn Farm.  It may however be worthwhile pointing out here that in the 1841 census Mr. Taylor is categorically described as a “miller foreman.”

Mr. Taylor was a man of faith and a staunch Baptist.  As soon as he arrived in the village he borrowed Mr. Munn’s barn on the north-east side of the green for Sundays and started a Baptist Sunday School.  He was not only concerned with the spiritual welfare of the children he also wanted to teach them to read.  At that time there was only one small school in the village and that was solely for boys whose parents were Church of England.(5)

During Mr. Taylor’s time at the mill the Stotfold riot of 1830 took place.  In its report of the riot the Times newspaper described the mill as “an extensive corn and seed mill” and said that the rioters had threatened to destroy it.  Mr. J.G. Fordham was so concerned that he rode over from Odsey and attended a meeting of the principle inhabitants of the village who had met to discuss the situation.  In the event however the mill was left untouched.

Mr. John Taylor snr.’s son Mr. John Taylor jrn. took over the working of the mill from his father and was running it on his own account sometime before 1861 though it was still owned by the Fordhams.  By this time the golden age of milling (1750-1850) had come to an end and fundamental changes in the technique of milling flour which over the coming years were to prove fatal to so many small-scale local millers were just beginning to take affect.  A series of bad harvests in 1875, 1876 and 1877 made matter worse.  I don’t know whether or not these things pressurised Mr. Taylor but for whatever reason in 1880 he gave up milling and became assistant overseer.  Between them the Taylors controlled the mill for over 60 years and they have given their name to both the mill and to Taylor’s Road.

What happened to the mill after Mr. John Taylor jnr. left is not clear.  In 1881 William R. Routledge aged 19, a corn miller was living there with his mother.  In 1891 William Bancroft aged 63, a farmer, seedsman and miller was the occupant.  Obviously since both men were millers the mill must have been kept running during this period.  In the 1891 census it is called Mr. Bancroft’s mill and it seems that for ten or more years he rented it from the Fordhams and worked it in a limited way as a sideline to his main business  which was that of seedsman.(7)

The position is somewhat easier to follow from here on.  In Kelly’s directories for 1903 and 1906 there are entries for Stotfold both of which read, “Bowman James (6) and Sons, millers (water) and at Astwick”.  A mill in Stotfold at that time powered only by water must refer to Taylor’s mill.  The clear implication is that in 1903 and 1906 Bowmans were milling there.  Mr. Sam Randall formerly of Randall’s mill agrees.  He says “Bowmans definitely used Taylor’s mill in the first part of the 20th century.”  It is not easy to see why the Bowmans who owned the fine Astwick mill which is only a few yards downstream should wish to rent a small, old fashioned mill like Taylor’s.  It is even more difficult to understand when it is remembered that Bowmans’ new steam powered roller mill at Hitchin began milling 1901.  Maybe they thought Taylor's would be convenient to grind animal feed.  Also being situated close by it might have had attractions for storage purposes.  I have been told that the late Mr. Freddie Rowland an old Stotfolder was employed by the Bowmans at Taylor’s mill dressing wet corn with blow chaff in order to dry it.  Bowmans finished with the mill in 1920.

The last people to run the mill were the Kitchener family of Church Farm, Astwick.  They bought it in 1920 from Florence Lady Provost who had it from the Fordhams.  The Kitcheners used it, as we think Bowmans probably did, to grind animal feed.(8)  The mill finally stopped working in 1935 when it was sold to Major Kerr-Smiley of Astwick Mill House.

Turning to the workings of the mill it was always well behind regards technical progress. It had one pair of peakstones and at least one pair of French stones.  By contrast Astwick mill had six small roller-mills, fitted in 1891, which were much more technically advanced. However they were not really suitable for the small amount and types of grain ground at Taylor's. Again steam power was not introduced to Taylor’s until after 1906.  That was late in the day, most other Ivel mills had turned to steam some years before.  Yet again, Taylor’s had an undershot water wheel.  Overshot wheels were much more efficient but they needed at least an 8 to 10ft. fall of water.  Taylor’s only had a 5ft fall so in this case nothing could reasonably be done about it.

Looking at the mill as it is today although still easily recognisable as a former mill it bears little relation to the old working mill.  The water wheel was removed for salvage during the Second World War.  The ‘luccam’ (i.e. the part which juts out of the roof of the mill) was dismantled and the chimney demolished sometime between 1941 and 1953.  During the same period all the machinery was taken out.  The only thing left was an iron plate which recalled the name of one of the companies responsible for the supply of stones, machinery, etc. to the mill it read, “Millwright – Corcoram – Manufacturing.  Mark Lane, London.”  This plate too has now gone.

We will end this section with a brief description of the mill.  Unlike the majority of Ivel mills, which are 19th century, four storyed modern industrial type buildings Taylor’s is a typical mid-18th century mill.  There used to be a beam in the mill on which were carved in a surround the letters T.B. and the date 1754.  The mill and mill house are two storeys and attics and are under one long roof.  The mill itself is timber framed and clad in weatherboarding.  The mill house is red brick with some chequered patterning in flared headers.(9)  The whole building is now an attractive private residence.

1.  Ref: V.C.H. p. 301 note 33.

2.  Ref. Science Museum Library, 29.A.7.

3.  Ref. C.R.O. PM683. The 150 loads of wheat a week must be a mistake. It is an incredibly large amount for a small mill like Taylor's.

4.  Lammas land was private land (field or meadow) which was sown with a crop in spring and harvested before Lammas day, August 1st.  On that day it was thrown open to common grazing until the following spring

5.  At this time Sunday Schools were a recognised part of the country’s education set up.  See "Bedfordshire Schoolchild”, Edited by David Bushby, B.H.R.S. vol. 67,  p.37.

6.  Mr. James Bowman (1834-1922) was founder of the present very successful company Bowman, Millers, Ickleford near Hitchin.

7.  Since this booklet was first prepared for printing Mr E J Elliott of  Knebworth has shown me new documents relating to William Bancroft.  In 1890 he spent £62 with T. Course and Son millwrights of Biggleswade repairing the mill.  It was a fair sized overhaul and included the fitting of one new Grey Barley stone 4ft. diameter and one second-hand Murdock's Patent Smutter. The latter cost £15 and was a machine for cleaning wheat grain before grinding.  It could be  that Mr. Bancroft was getting the mill into good order prior to taking it over..  I saw several of his delivery notes dated 1900. They were headed Stotfold Mills. The top three items were Pastry, Households and Wholemeal: all types of flour.  The other items were various kinds of animal feed.  Some of the notes had been signed by Thomas Craft a Stotfold baker. Mr. Bancroft died in January 1900 and after his death the mill was kept running for a short period by his executors.  All this tallies with what I wrote about him in the main part of the essay. 

8.  I am obliged to Mr. Frank Dilley for some of the data on the Kitchener family.  Mr. Dilly lived in Taylor’s mill as a boy from 1922 to 1940.  In describing it he said that sometimes when the river was in flood it would start working of its own accord and this was very scary when it happened in the middle of the night.

9.  Flared headers are bricks one end of which has been coloured blue or grey by vitrification in the kiln and can sometimes be very dark indeed and laid with the coloured end showing on the wall surface.  Used in former times for decorative effect.

Randall's Mill

We will start by considering the age old question which of the two mills was Stotfold mill.  At various times both mills have been called by that name.  On the 1765 map Taylor’s mill is not named and Randall’s mill is called the Upper Mill. 

In the book “Bedfordshire Mills”, Randall’s mill is down as the Old Mill.  However, in the Post Office directory for 1869 it is named as Stotfold Mill and the same is the case on delivery note headings from John Randall from 1876 onwards.  Despite this, in our view Taylor’s mill is properly Stotfold Mill.  It is so named on the sale document of 1795 and the same is true of maps dated c1806, 1826 and the Ordnance Survey maps of 1834-72 and 1884.

As had been remarked earlier Randall’s mill was held by copyhold.  This gives us a clear and useful distinction from Taylor’s mill, which was freehold.  Also being copyhold it can be traced in the manor court books.  These certainly go back to Richard Lorymer’s mill of c1516 and beyond.  Apart from the reference to Richard Lorymer’s mill the earliest we ourselves have gone back is to 21st March 1694 when James Sander or Sanders surrendered the mill and John Guilberd was admitted.  Guilberd held it on a herriott of 25s (1) and an annual rent of the same amount.

The next thing of interest we have discovered about Randall’s mill is that in 1770 Francis Smith the owner was in danger of losing his mill.  In the Hertfordshire County Record Office there is a letter to him from William Bennett explaining his rather precarious position at the mill.(2) This letter came from London and was dated 25th Dec. 1770.  It said

You may think that is a rather strange letter to write on Christmas day.  Obviously Mr. Bennett was a hard working solicitor touting for business.  As the letter shows the Woodwards and the Gilbirds or Guilberds were all related.  Between them they had owned the mill for a very long time.  No wonder young Woodward wanted it so badly apart from the fact that it had been in his family so long, his father James Woodward (3) had at one time been miller there.  It must have seemed like home to him.  I don’t know whether he ever got his money but it is possible that the affair cost Francis Smith £100 for in the year following the letter from William Bennett there is an entry in the court books which may relate to it in which at a court held in Oct. 1771, Francis Smith surrendered conditionally to Mrs. Mary Twydell which was discharged upon payment by Francis Smith of £100.  But regardless of whether or not this had anything to do with it we can be sure that young Woodward didn’t get the mill because when Francis Smith died in 1781 he was still in possession of it.  Indeed in his will he left it to his wife.(4)

After her husband’s death widow Smith ran the mill on her own for seven years, then came Thomas Gurney who was followed in 1823 by James Pestell formerly of Radwell, Herts.  He had not been at the mill long before disaster struck.  It is believed that it burnt down.  That was in 1825.  Mr. Pestell rebuilt the mill.  The new building had three storeys.  The upper two storeys were weatherboarding and the ground floor gault bricks, slightly yellow in colour.  The Bricks came from the nearby Wrayfield brick kiln.(5) Scratched in the bricks on the ground floor wall facing the road were some initials, “W.P.” “G.Bally 1825,” “H.P.” and “C.H.”.  Obviously the “P” stands for Pestell.  The Ballys farmed the 40 acre Cannon End Farm, where ever that may have been.  In the early 1830s Mr. Pestell was declared bankrupt.(6)  Perhaps the cost of rebuilding the mill put a strain on his resources.

The next owner was George Waldock farmer, miller and brickmaker who lived at Astwick mill.  His journeyman miller, shown in the censuses of 1841 and 1851 as living in the mill, was Joseph Cole.  He later became miller at Tempsford mill which like Randall’s was also on the river Ivel.

By 1869 the locally important family of Vaughan had bought the mill.  They farmed Grange Farm in High Street, the largest farm in the village.  Charles Vaughan is named as miller in the 1869 Kelly’s directory.  That does not mean, of course, that he was personally responsible for the actual milling but that he ran the mill as his own business.  However he seems to have soon lost interest for in 1871 he was leasing the mill to Samuel Garret aged 63.  According to the 1871 census Mr. Garret lived at the mill and employed 2 men. His foreman miller was William Sarl who also lived at the mill.  Mr. Sarl was a stonemason as well as a miller and as such was very useful in a mill that had grinding stones.

We come now to the Randalls.  They were an old Stotfold Family.  John Randall snr. the great-grandfather was born in Stotfold in 1795 i.e. before the Napoleonic wars.  Like John Taylor snr. he was a general Baptist but later became a strict Baptist.  At first he was a farm labourer then postmaster, that was before Ebsworth (c1847) and finished up a straw manufacturer.  John Randall jnr. was also born in Stotfold (1829).  They were very hard times, a farm labourer only earned ten shillings a week.  The Randalls however were a very independent family.  When young John was six years old in 1835 his father won a two pounds ten shillings prize given by the Bedfordshire Agricultural Society in that being a farm labourer he had brought up 10 children on the earnings of himself and his family alone without recourse to parish relief.  So young John knew all about good management of money from a very early age.  When he grew older he went to Jordan’s mill near Biggleswade then run by the Powers family to be trained as a miller.  He took over Randall’s mill in 1876.  At first he rented it from Charles Vaughan then when the latter died he bought it.  William Sarl was kept on as foreman miller.

Dealing now with technical matters.  A steam engine to assist the water wheel was introduced sometime before 1890 – hence the tall brick chimney at the back of the mill.  Towards the end of the century the millwork was completely reconstructed.  This was carried out by the famous Suffolk millwrights Whitmore and Binyon.(7) An iron hurst frame carrying three pairs of French stones and one pair of peakstones was fitted.(8) At the same time a new water wheel was put in.  There is a description of the new wheel and its workings in “Industrial Archaeology in Bedfordshire", Bedfordshire County Council. Jan.1967  p.11 (10).  “The head of water to turn the wheel is created by dropping wooden planks into a sluice, forcing the water over the sill on to the overshot wheel.  This wheel is 14 ft. in width and 8 ft. in diameter with bucket type paddles, which utilize the weight of the water as well as its force.  It was designed by John Lampit of Hemel Hempstead and installed in 1897 replacing a previous overshot wheel.  The power from the water wheel is transmitted via a vertical pit wheel attached to the main vertical shaft.  Above this wheel on the main shaft is a horizontal spur wheel driving four inner stones on the floor above.  On the top floor is a winch to haul up the bags of grain and large storage bins from which the grain drops down to the stones by gravity.”

The changes  above had hardly been completed before Mr. Randall began to plan his next move, a brand new roller mill.  It was to be built alongside the old mill.  However, he died in 1900 before his scheme could be brought to fruition and it was left to his son Ebenezer to carry out the work.  The new mill was a four storeyed industrial type building and was built by Redhouse the well known Stotfold builders in 1902.  They built a new mill at Hitchin for James Bowman and Sons at the same time.  The bricks used by Redhouse in building the new mill came from their own brick kiln at nearby Wrayfield.  These bricks were quite different from the Wrayfield bricks used by James Pestell when building the old mill way back in 1825.(9)  The new mill was doomed from the start.  It never really took off.  It was based on outdated ideas and could not compete with the much larger mills being built elsewhere.  Also it seems that Mr. Randall had too great a reliance on the railways not realising the potential of motor transport.  The new mill gradually fell into disuse.

Although the new mill had ceased working the old one was kept running.  This lasted some years.  A diesel engine was fitted in 1954 but all in vain.  Not long and the old mill too fell silent.  Here is a quotation about its last days in use.  

We have discussed the two mill buildings as we have gone along so the only thing left to describe is the mill house.  It is early 19th century encasing an earlier probably 17th century structure, extended later in 19th century.  It has cement