The Water Mills of Exeter - a short history

It is thought that that the development of water mills in Europe was encouraged by the corn mills that were run by monks. Travellers brought back details of Chinese mills, which had been used for more than a thousand years, which the monks seized upon to make improvements to their own mills. One of the earliest mills in Exeter was that of the Cluniac monks of St James, who in the middle of the 12th Century built a mill at Salmon Poll.

A little later, sometime between 1180 and 1190, Robert Courtenay granted to Nicholas Gervaise "...all his water which Thomas the fuller holds of him outside the west gate of Exeter, which is between his corn mills and Crickenpette, so that the said Nicholas and his heirs may build a mill on the said water towards Crickenpette as shall appear best and most commodious to them". This is the earliest record of a mill in Exeter.

In 1403 the City recorded that "An Ordinance made by the Mayor and Common Council of this City, that every Baker within the same, and Suburbs thereof, should from time to time, grind all his Corn at the Cities Mills, &c. Duryurd and Cricklepit."

Over the next few hundred years, water wheels were used for much more than grist mills (grinding grain). Mills would grind malt, bone, corn, snuff, drive sawmills and machinery for forges, smithies bellows, leather tanning, a dye works, produce paper, and most importantly, hammer woollen cloth in a process called 'fulling' and 'tucking'. Just about any industry that needed power could use a water wheel. The wheel was driven by water from a leat, and Exeter had two leats running through Exe Island. See Leats of Exeter.

The Fulling Mills

Exeter was the south west's centre for the finishing of woollen cloth; the process called fulling required a water wheel to drive the machinery. The cloth was washed in stale human urine, which contains ammonia, and fullers earth. The serge was folded over and placed in a wooden holding cradle and pummelled with large square wooden hammers, or fulling stocks, driven by the water wheel. This process would cleanse the wool of oils, dirt and other impurities and thicken the fibres by matting the surface texture. Every night, urine was collected from taverns, inns and houses by women with 'piss carts'. The serge was thoroughly washed in river water to prevent it shrinking, and was taken to be hung on racks in drying sheds, and more usually, rack fields. The phrase, 'being on tenterhooks' comes from hanging the cloth on frames called tenters, using tenterhooks. The rackfields were also known as the tenterground.

Notable Mills and Water Powered Businesses 

There were more than a dozen working mills between Head Weir and the Quay recorded through city records and newspaper announcements and adverts for let and sale. Below are some of the notable mills.

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Cricklepit Mill

The most well known of Exeter's mills is Cricklepit, which is also the only one to survive into the 21st Century. As already mentioned, Robert Courtenay granted Nicholas Gervaise the right to build his mill at Crickenpette in 1180/90.

Records show that in 1463, Crickenpette was still working steadily as a grist mill or corn mill. In 1529 the mill was remodelled and part of the present structure dates from this time, still as a corn mill. The historian, Jenkins wrote of the famous Matthew the Miller, who is said to have lived his life precisely to the tick of the St Mary Steps clock, thus helping the locals know the time, "This Matthew was an opulent Miller, who resided at Cricklepit; he was remarkable for his integrity".

In 1689, one of Cricklepit's wheels used a treble mill gearing system to drive two millstones, one of which was grinding malt by 1689. By the 18th Century, Cricklepit Mill was also fulling wool, grinding malt and producing flour. The mill complex, had three wheels in 1757, driving three grist and two fulling mills. A single wheel could drive two fulling stocks directly off the mill shaft, through a simple trip cam mechanism. The actual building containing the fulling stocks was often quite small and cramped.

Cricklepit was often put to new uses, so long as it was power that was required, and the water wheels drove a rubble machine, and a manganese mill in the 19th Century, alongside its other duties. The Napoleonic Wars had put paid to Exeter's woollen exports, and consequently the processing of wool quickly died out. Exeter's remoteness from the coal fields meant that the water wheels were still needed to provide power for a variety of industries.

There is a Joseph Gattey recorded in 1800 as a flour merchant of the city; it is not known if he worked Cricklpit Mill, although a John Gattey was a miller at Cricklepit in 1809. Mr William Mann was the miller in 1824, when his 7 year old son was knocked down in Old Bridge Street, by a cart, which did not stop - an early hit and run. The boy was taken to the surgeon where he was found to have suffered severe bruising around the head, and was in danger for a time.

Richard Kelland

Richard Kelland was recorded in the 1841 census as a miller in Cricklepit Lane, and as the miller, in the Flying Post, at Cricklepit in 1854. In 1857, he was a signatory to the newly formed Millers and Corn Merchants Sack Protection Society. He was accused of adultering his flour with alum in a court case in 1858, along with other millers, a charge which was not proven. 

In the 1861 census, he was employing one man and one boy. By 1866, the mill was in the occupation of Mr Frederick Pitts, and was for let. Mr Pitts was suffering from ill health, necessitating the sale. It was capable of eighty to ninety sacks per week, indicating that it was one of the smaller mills in the city; Powhay Mills in 1877 could produce 500 sacks.

In Exeter, the industrial revolution saw the emergence of many iron foundries, often using machinery driven by water. In 1868, Cricklepit took delivery of a new wheel, cast nearby by William Bolt at the Old Quay Foundry. 

A fire in January 1878, on woodwork surrounding the millstones was put out, before the brigade arrived, by the foreman and neighbours dipping buckets in the leat. The owner was Woodbridge and Sons who also ran the Lower Mill, a few metres further down the leat.

In 1907, Cricklepit was also a saw mill; at this time, perhaps a half of Shilhay was devoted to storing and sawing timber, and there would have been a requirement, from time to time for extra capacity, which Cricklepit could fulfil. And all the time, Cricklepit was still grinding corn for animal feed and flour.

In 1914, the mill was occupied by William French & Co, corn dealers who purchased the property in 1920. In 1953 French's sold the mill to Henry Eke and Walter Percy Keeling. By 1970 the buildings were no longer a working mill and were used by Shears for storing animal feed.

Cricklepit has been the subject of much speculation during the last few years - abandoned and deteriorating, it suffered a fire in 1999. It was decided to save what remained of Exeter's last water mill, and the site was sold to the Devon Wildlife Trust, with help from Exeter City Council, Exeter Canal and Quay Trust and English Heritage. Traditional millwright Martin Watts has been contracted to renovate the mill, and when complete, the mill will become the headquarters of the trust, and be used as a wildlife information centre open to the public.

See the video Cricklepit Mills opens April 2008.

Lower Mills

Situated between Cricklepit and the Customs House, the first mention of this mill was in the Exeter Flying Post in 1819 when a for sale notice stated that the mill had a single and double wheel engaged in fulling. It also had a drying loft for the cloth. 

From before 1866, when a six-horse portable steam engine was offered for sale, to after 1879 the mills were worked by Woodbridge and Sons. William Woodbridge, a miller and corn factor, was born in 1813 and lived in Haven Banks House on the canal. He not only ran the Lower Mill, but he also worked Cricklepit Mill. In 1881, his son, also William, was living in Alphington and appears to have taken over the business, employing 7 men and 2 boys. William Woodbridge died in April 1879 at the age of 67 and was buried in the Lower Cemetery, beneath the catacombs.

Lower Mill was flooded in October 1875 and some sacks of flour were left standing in two feet of water. Two years later and Mr John Woodbridge won the tender for supplying flour at £2 4s 11d a sack to the St Thomas Board of Guardians. 

When the mill was offered for sale in 1881 it had the following fixtures and machinery - "....smut, flour and winnowing machines, troughs, elevators, silks, corn crushing mill, oil cake crusher, disintegrator, chaff-cutter, steam engine, boiler, and fittings, &c." (FP) and was occupied by William Burrows. The mill was up for sale again in June 1895, when it was described as a flour mill, still occupied by Mr W Burrow. In 1898 the mill was engaged in both producing flour and also used as a saw mill. 

The mill was destroyed by a fire in the early 20th Century and the site put up for sale in 1923. It became Shears Lower Mill, driving a pair of flat millstones, for grist milling. This mill burnt down, as a possible victim of arson, in April 1934, but was rebuilt by W Brown and Co, using the old water wheel to drive a high speed vertical millstone. The mill was still working in 1970 using electrically driven machinery for grinding animal feedstuffs. A single, working 18ft undershot wheel is still in position.

Round Tree Mill

The Round Tree Mill, just a few metres north of the City Brewery could only be entered from New Bridge Street. It existed in 1688, before New Bridge Street was built, when it was known as Cuckingstool Mills.

James Worthy of New Bridge Street was listed as a miller in the 1839 Robson's, in what was probably Cuckingstool Mill. The Flying Post carried a notice of let, in 1855, for Cuckingstool or Round Tree Mills, situated on Bridge Street in the occupation of Messrs. G and E Reed. Although on a rather cramped site which could only be entered from New Bridge Street, the mill had three pairs of mill stones driven from the wheel on the Lower Leat. The mill was discussed at a meeting of the City Council in 1863, when it was suggested that if £500 be spent on it, the Council could increase its return on the property.

In June 1872 the Flying Post published a notice of sale "Lot 1 - All those valuable and well-known Grist Mills, known as Cuckingstool Mills situate in Bridge Street... now in the occupation of Messrs Linscott... held under lease from the Town Council.... for ninety-nine years, determinable on the life of a gentleman now aged thirty-seven subject to a conventionary rent of £12"

In January 1885, a notice appeared in the Flying Post that announced:

December 29th 1884
Sir
I beg to inform you that M BASTICK, of the Round Tree Mill, has disposed of his Business to me. I hope to carry the same on in the same satisfactory manner as he has, and solicit a continuance of your esteemed commands, which will have best attention and thanks,
I remain,
Dear Sir
Yours respectfully,
William Pinet.

The building suffered three fires, over a period of 15 months, the last of which destroyed it in 1910. The owner, 50 year old Mr Charles Reynolds, the managing director of the West of England Trading Company was arrested, following the last fire on March 10th. He had been pressed for money and was required to pay £1,600 on a mortgage for the mill, having insured the premises and stock for £3,500. Reynolds had placed candles, oil and cotton waste around the mill and set fire to it. Ten people sleeping overhead were hastily roused to make their escape. The jury could not agree a verdict, and the case was put back to the next assizes. He was found guilty at the second trial and sentenced to five years penal servitude.

The City Brewery

The Norman & Pring, City Brewery took its power from two water wheels. One wheel was replaced by a turbine in 1929 while the other wheel lasted until 1953.

Head Weir Mill

Originally opened as a grist mill using water raised by the Blackaller Weir. The confusingly named Head Weir Mill was converted to producing paper in 1787. In 1844, paper production was by Tremlett & Harris, with the Tremlett family making paper until after the First World War. In 1882, the mill was badly damaged by fire requiring the premises to be rebuilt, and the addition of a small Robey steam turbine which powered the mill when the water level was low. The mill was then taken over by E S & A Robinson of Bristol. Just before it closed in 1967, the mill was producing 50 tons of paper per week for tickets, sugar paper and laminating. Much of the mill was demolished in 1982, leaving the buildings that were converted into the Mill on the Exe in 1983.

Powhay or Bonhay Mills

The site of Powhay Mills is now a block of residential housing unsurprisingly known as Powhay Mills. 

The earliest record of a mill on the site is from 1422, when an account shows one John Austyn paying the sum of 26s 8d to the Earl of Devon for corn mills in Boghenhay, along with 20s for a newly built corn mill at the same site. By 1577 there were two grist and a single malt mill. Through the 17th-Century, the mill was modified from time to time, and a major rebuild commenced in 1667, for Mrs Pyle. The complex now consisted of three grist mills, a malt mill and two fulling mills; this was a time when Bonhay was full of rack fields for drying the cloth.

The structure of a mill was very fluid at this time and rebuilds and change of uses were fairly easy to accomplish as the main buildings were often built of timber with a solid, stone base, and stone walls to support the wheels. It was also common to add or remove millstones and even wheels, according to requirements. By 1758, the mill had four wheels, all driven by the Lower Leat. Two were on opposite banks, one directly below one of the above wheels, and even lower down the leat, a central wheel. These four wheels drove four grist mills, one malt mill and two fulling mills. Two or even three millstones could be driven by one wheel through gearing.

The earliest reference to the name Powhay Mill was in 1727, in papers that were drawn up, regarding a legal dispute. In 1785, the Sherbourne Mercury noted that there were four corn mills, and five fulling mills, all driven from two wheels. Through the 19th Century Powhay was mostly run as a grist mill; in April 1817 there was a to let or sale notice for a mill with five fulling stocks adjoining the existing flour mill run by Mr James Strong. Mr Strong lived at 96 Fore Street where he ran a baking and confectionery business, doubtless, supplied with flour from his mill. Mr Strong was also involved in other speculative trades, such as importing timber from St John's New Brunswick which was landed at Bonhay during 1819.  Robson's Directory of Devon for 1839 has James Strong listed as running a bone mill for fertiliser from Powhay.

By 1849, James Strong and Son divested itself of the Fore Street business and in 1854, Powhay Mill was offered for sale as a snuff or fulling mill. The mill remained as a flour mill, for in 1856, Mr Kemp won the tender for supplying flour at £2 18s  10d a sack for the Exeter Corporation of the Poor. It is not certain if Kemp owned or leased the mill but in May 1869, the mortgagees instructed that the mill and other local properties, including the newly completed St Edmund's Square be sold. A  month later and the new owner, Mr John Carthew, of Four Mills, Crediton advertised the mill for let. The premises consisted of three waterwheels, nine pairs of French millstones, four silk flour dressers, and a smut machine used for cleaning wheat, all of the newest kind. 

The mill was for let again in 1877, when it was stated it could produce 500 sacks of flour per week, weighing  63½ tons, from three wheels. Mr Edmund Brown was the new miller, and he soon made an impression when he chaired an Exeter millers meeting on the standardisation of the weight of a sack of flour. By July 1882, he was president of the Devon County Millers Association and seemed set fair to become a man of influence, when, in July 1885, he was declared bankrupt. 

Annie Tooke

In May 1879, the torso of a 8 month old baby boy was found by Edward Stookes, in the grid of the mill leat beneath Powhay Mills. The leat was drained and the head was found at the rear of the city brewery, while the arms and legs were in the leat near the Shakespeare Inn. The body parts were taken to the Princess Alexandra Inn, just opposite Powhay. A woman named Anne Tooke was arrested, found guilty and hung in August 1879, for the child's murder in one of the most sensational trials of the 19th Century.

All this time, the owner, Mr Carthew attended to his milling and farming interests in Crediton. It is probable when Mr Brown was bankrupted that Carthew employed a manager to run the mill as he was by then, 74 years old. Mr Carthew died in 1896 and the mill passed to his son. In June 1900 it was for auction at the Half Moon Hotel in the High Street. The sale advert said it was suitable as a flour, wool, paper or saw mill, a brewery, tannery or a dye works. By this time, Exeter had no woollen industry and there was fierce competition for milling corn, so a new use would be found for the complex, despite the fact that it had been upgraded to a roller mill.

It became, by 1904, the South Devon Ice and Cold Storage Co., where 1 cwt (50 kg) blocks of ice were produced for delivery to local butchers and fishmongers. The water wheels were taken out, and power produced for the cold store compressor by a gas engine that used both town gas, and their own gas from the producer gas process. The works were burnt down, in November 1936. See Express and Echo report and Cyril Browns's memories for more on the fire. Powhay House survived until the 1970s. Signpost Homes built the Powhay Mills apartments in 2001, providing forty four homes, which were opened by Ben Bradshaw MP.

City Mill or Ewings Lane Mill

The City Mill was on the south side of the Higher Leat in Ewing Street. City Mill is thought to be one of the two mills granted by Nicholas de Courtenay to Nicholas Gervase in the late 12th century. The mill was engaged in fulling in 17th century, and in 1802, it was sold along with three other fulling mills on the same site (which were eventually merged to create Surridge's mill) to new owners. By 1815 it was corn milling with Mr Adams. The mill was left to James Upright by the previous mill owner, probably Adams, and worked by himself, and later his youngest son.

The Flying Post recorded an accident at Upright's City Mill in 1825 when a journeyman slipped and fell, severely injuring his ankle. The Special Corporation of the Poor awarded Upright's Mill the contract to supply it with flour at  £1 19s per sack, and in the same year, a run of adverts for Pates Lozenges used a letter of recommendation from Thomas Upright, perhaps indicating the flour dust in the air affected the workers adversely. James Upright died at the age of 65 in July 1851, so he had obviously not been using Pates lozenges.

In April 1857 the Millers and Cornworkers Sack Protection Society (you couldn't make it up) was formed, and the young James, was one of the founder members. The aim of the society was to protect the interests of the millers, and prevent sacks from one mill being purloined by another. A case of adulteration of flour with alum, was dismissed, against Mr Upright in February 1858 and then in January 1862, James Upright was involved in one of several cases of arbitration against Mr Surridge regarding water flow, which was decided in Surridge's favour.

A dead horse

An odd little story appeared in the Flying Post, in July 1859,  about the strange death of a horse belonging to Mr Upright the miller, of the West Quarter. The horse died suddenly and was examined to determine the cause; a stone weighing 26½ lbs with a circumference of twenty-three inches was found in its stomach. There was no explanation as to how the stone got into the horse's stomach. A month later, the stone was put on display, alongside pictures and photographs of butterflies, at a fête for the Working Men's Improvement Society at Duryard. This resulted in a letter appearing on the Flying Post in which it was stated that a similar, if smaller stone had been found in a horse's stomach three years previously, and it was thought to be caused by feeding the animal bran.

James Upright was married in 1860 to Elizabeth Morgan, daughter of the late William Morgan, who was a former sword bearer for the city, became the father of a son in the November, and then his wife died at the age of 38 in 1863. He married for a second time in 1865. 

Through all these years James Upright was an active City Councillor, who was not afraid to speak his mind, and seemed to have an opinion on everything. Time passed and in March 1895, James Upright, miller died at the age of 79. His son, R C Upright, in February 1897, and still working the City Mill, was nominated for the Board of Guardians for Trinity Ward.

The mill became Hellier's City Roller Mill the next year, and won a tender to supply flour to the Exeter Board of Guardians in December 1898 at a cost of 20s 10d per sack. French's, who owned several mills in Exeter including Cricklepit, took on both Surridge and City Mill, and amalgamated them, sometime after the First War. The mill had an auxiliary electric motor to supplement the wheel; when the water was high, the wheel would drive the motor in reverse to produce electricity, that was fed back into the grid. The mill continued to produce flour up until it closed, and sold to the City Council, for the building of Western Way, in the early 1960's, and which now runs straight over the site of the mill.

Surridge's Mill

Situated in West Street, Surridge's Mill as it was for much of the 19th century, dates from 1688, when it ran six fulling mills; it was also a fulling mill in the late 18th Century, just when the woollen trade collapsed. 

Mr John Surridge, the miller from the mid nineteenth century, was involved in arbitration with Mr Upright of the City Mill in 1859 and 1862, when he maintained he was allowed three fourths of the water flow. His mill had originally three wheels, which he replaced with one large one, and which Mr Upright alleged, was robbing him of water. Surridge and Upright were at court again in 1867, regarding trespass, through rebuilding works, and the placing of a smut machine that caused a nuisance, and confirming that relations between Surridge's mill and Upright's mill were not good.

The riots of November 5, 1867 caused problems for Surridge, when it was reported that the shop front and shutters of the mill were smashed and "the contents of the shop pitched into the street" (FP) and Surridge later put in a claim for £20 for damages. 

The mill was also mentioned in 1879 when the body of a 15 month old boy was found in the grate of the leat beneath the mill; this was a not uncommon occurrence, and there are dozens of reports of bodies fished from leats in Exeter during the 19th century.

John Surridge was a prominent councillor through the latter part of the century for Trinity Ward, and was involved in many of the discussions regarding sewage disposal, especially regarding the pollution of the leats.

Engine Bridge Mills

Originally the site of the city water engine, that pumped water up to a cistern behind the Guildhall. It was sold in 1836 after the Pynes Water Works opened. The wheel, shed, buildings and cottages became a general purpose mill. By 1839 it was run by John Townsend who manufactured flock. In 1850 it was recorded as Martyn & Parkins who were millwrights, and Messrs. Cridge and Redwood. It was discussed by the Council General Purposes Committee in December 1860, as it had become dilapidated, and Mr Tanner had put in a claim for repairs. 

The mill and mill house occupied by William Tremlett, and used as a bone mill, were up for auction in January 1864. It was up for let again, two years later, and in 1868, it was for sale, described as 'formerly used as the "Exeter Water Works"'  The property was purchased by Exeter's mill owners in order that they could remove the wheel and improve the flow of water further down the leat. They then resold the buildings, incurring a loss of £500; a request to the Council for £137 3s, a share of the loss to be paid as compensation, was deferred to a committee to decide.

Sources: Izacke Remarkable Antiquities of the City of Exeter, Jenkin's Civil and Ecclesiastical History of the City of Exeter, Exeter 1540-1640 by Wallace MacCaffrey,Murray French, Water Mills and other Water Powered Sites in Devon by Martin Bodman, Devon Archaeological Society - Excavations on the site of Bonhay Mills, Trewman's Exeter Flying Post and the census records.