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, drive 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 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 men from the 'piss cart'. 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".

By the 18th Century, Cricklepit Mill was also fulling wool, grinding malt as well as producing flour. The mill complex, had three wheels in 1757, driving three grist and two fulling mills. 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.

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. 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 fulfill. 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. In 1898 the mill was engaged in grinding 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 in 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. The mill was still known as the Cuckinstool Mill in 1846, but by 1888 it was the Round Tree Mill. The building suffered four fires, in a short duration, the last of which destroyed it in 1910. The owner was imprisoned for arson the following year.

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. In 1785, the Sherbourne Mercury noted that there were four corn mills, and five fulling mills, all driven from two water wheels. Through the 19th Century Powhay was mostly a grist mill, although in 1854 it was for sale as a snuff and fulling mill. In 1877 the mill was driven by three waterwheels. It became 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 wheels were taken out, and power produced for the 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 the 1930's. See Cyril Browns's memories for more on the ice works.

City Mill (Ewings Lane Mill) and Surridge Mill

These two corn mills were situated just below Stepcote Hill. The City Mill was on the south side of the Higher Leat in Ewing Street, while the Surridge Mill was on the north side, in West Street. Surridge 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.

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, but by 1820 it was corn milling again. By the 20th century the mill was known as Hellier's City Roller Mills. French's, who owned several mills in Exeter including Cricklepit, took on the City Mill. 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 for the building of Western Way, in the early 1960's, and which now runs straight over the site of these two mills.

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 and buildings became a general purpose mill. In 1850 it was recorded as Martin & Parkins who were millwrights. Up to 1866 it was used as a bone mill occupied by William Tremlett. It no longer exists.

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, and Water Mills and other Water Powered Sites in Devon by Martin Bodman.