The History of Eling
Tide Mill
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Introduction
Eling Tide Mill is a water mill that harnesses the power of the tide
to grind wheat into wholemeal flour.
Situated on the edge of Southampton Water beside the renowned New Forest,
there has been a mill on the site for over 900 years, although it has
had to be rebuilt several times, with the current building being some
230 years old. Tide mills were once an important part of the economy
of many countries, such as Great Britain and the United States of America
- the latter having many hundreds of tide mills on the eastern coast
from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Tidal power was harnessed in this
fashion not only for milling flour, but for everything from sawing
lumber and operating the bellows and hammers in ironworks, to manufacturing
paper and cotton, to grinding spices, pepper and gunpowder. Before
the advent of the steam engine they were the one kind of large-scale
mill that was pretty much guaranteed to be able to run 365 days of
the year.
Unfortunately they suffered far more than the river and wind mills
after they were gradually abandoned in the 19th and early 20th centuries,
and very few survive even as derelicts. There are only five tide mills
open to the public in the entire United Kingdom, and none at all in
the U.S.A.
Eling Tide Mill, although abandoned in the 1940s, had the great good
fortune to survive until it was restored between 1975 and 1980, at
which time it re-opened as both a working mill, and a museum to this
part of our industrial heritage. It is the only fully working and productive
tide mill in the United Kingdom, once again producing flour as it had
throughout the last Millennium. It is, in fact, one of only two productive
tide mills in the entire world (to the best of our knowledge), and
the only one producing what it was built to produce. |
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Key Dates
1086 Domesday Book lists
corn mill at Eling
1300 Nicholas le Coupere and others are fined for carrying off
timber to the New Forest to Eling Mill
1382 Given to Winchester College by William of Wykeham as part
of its endowment. Winchester College leased it to tenants until
1975
1418 Earliest surviving lease, granted to Thomas Mydlington of
Southampton. Mill and causeway had to be rebuilt within two years
1518 A lease makes it clear that there was a wheat mill and a malt
mill both under one roof
1741-2 Causeway breached and £195 spent on repairs to bridge, mill
tumbling bay and gate hatches
1754-5 Causeway repaired with stone from the Isle of Wight
1785 Present building probably erected by John Chandler
1878 Tumbling bay bridge rebuilt as weir
1886 Causeway breached in a storm. (Night of 26th-27th December)
1890 Former grain store on quay converted to steam mill
1898 Most of the machinery replaced by Armfields of Ringwood
1920s The mill concentrates mainly on animal feed
1936 Machinery for animal feeds converted to diesel, one waterwheel
still driving two pairs of stones
1941 All milling ceased
1945 Hatches removed to stop Rumbridge flooding, but silting of
the creek increased
1975 Purchased by New Forest District Council from Winchester College,
for restoration as a Working Museum
1975-1980 Restoration by volunteers and Work Creation Teams
1980 Mill re-opens as a Working Museum
2009 Totton and Eling Town Council take over management of the
building |
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| Courtesy of John Hurst |
Origins
We do not actually know when the Mill was first built, but the earliest
surviving reference to it is in the Domesday Book - a survey of all
England - in 1086 AD. It is possible that it may even go back to
Roman times (c.200-400 AD), but any evidence of this will be underneath
the Mill and its dam. |
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Machinery – facts and
figures
Waterwheel
Diameter: 3.6 metres (12 feet)
Blades: Length: 1.7 metres (5 feet 6 ins ) Width: 1ft 11 ins
The Waterwheel has 24 Paddles (or Blades)
Gear Wheels
Pit Wheel: 108 Cogs (or teeth) Diameter: 8ft 10 ins
Wallower: 50 Cogs (or teeth) Diameter: 3ft 9 ins
Great Spur Wheel: 107 Cogs (or teeth)
Stone Nut: 23 Cogs (or teeth)
Crown Wheel: 97 Cogs (or teeth)
Theoretical Horse Power 29 HP |
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The Heyday of the Mill
The Mill was always owned by the Lord of the Manor of Eling, and originally
this was the King of England as Eling was a royal manor. In the early
1200s, however, the manor and Mill were sold off by King John. They
went through various hands until 1382 AD, when the title - and with
it the Mill - was purchased by the Bishop of Winchester and given
to a school he was founding (along with many other properties) to
be a source of income. This school - Winchester College, the famous
public school - owned the Mill from 1382 to 1975 AD, though they
did not run it directly, but rather leased it out on long leases.
Although a very small operation by today's standards, in the past it
was not just a small local business. While some of the grain for milling
was from local farms, more used to be brought several hundred miles
round the coast in barges from the Eastern side of England; when the
tide was in, the barges could be sailed up Southampton Water, into
Eling Creek, and right up to the Mill. Maximum possible output, running
both waterwheels and all four sets of stones at full speed for both
tides, could have been about 4 tonnes of flour per day. |
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Rebuilds
The Mill has had to be rebuilt many times over the centuries, the last
time being in the 1780s when it (and the dam) were completely rebuilt
after a bad series of storms and floods. The current building is
therefore in excess of 220 years old, although it has been on the
same site and always a tidal powered flour mill for at least 940
years.
The milling machinery was last replaced in 1898 AD, when the old wooden
undershot wheels and main gearing were replaced by cast iron Poncelet-type
wheels (which increased the efficiency) and cast iron axles and gears.
Basically, though, it still has the same parts working the same way
as it always did. |
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Glossary
Bed Stone: The lower,
stationary mill stone
Bill: Chisel pointed tool for dressing
the millstone
Chart Datum: This is a fixed reference
level against which tidal heights are measured
Cogs: Teeth of a gear where timber is used
instead of iron
Crown Wheel: Gear wheel at the top of the
vertical shaft, used to drive auxiliary machinery
Damsel: Device for shaking grain from the
shoe
Eye: Opening in the centre of the runner
stone where the grain enters
Flour Dresser: inclined sieve with rotating
brushes to separate bran from wholemeal
Furrows: Channels on the face of the mill
stone
Great Spur: The driving gear attached to
the vertical shaft above the wallower and driving the stone nuts
Grist: Blended mixture of grain fed to
rollers or stones
Head: Difference in height between levels
of water
Hopper: Box that holds grain above the
millstones
Horse: Framework supporting the hopper
and shoe above the mill stones
Hurst Floor: The floor where the massive
wooden Hurst framework carries the bearing for the stone shaft and
supports the heavy millstones
Jockey Pulley: Pulley which tensions the
drive belt on the sack hoist
Lands: Area of millstone between furrows
Pit Wheel: Large bevel gear wheel attached
to the axle of the water wheel and driving the wallower, changing
horizontal power to vertical power
Runner stone: The revolving upper mill
stone
Sack Hoist: A system which drives a chain
hoist near the top floor to haul grain or meal from the floors below.
It can be operated from any floor
Shoe: Chute which directs grain from the
hopper to the eye of the stones
Stitching: Fine grooves on the face of
the mill stone lands
Stone Crane: Pivoted crane for lifting
and turning millstones
Stone Nuts: The gear wheel which is attached
to the stone shaft and therefore driving the runner stone
Tun or Vats: Casing around each pair of
stones
Wallower: The first gear, attached to the
vertical shaft, that takes the drive from the pit and water wheels.
Thereby changing the horizontal motion into a vertical drive. |
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The End of the Mill ...
almost
The market for all of the small, millstone-using mills (whether tidal,
wind or river powered) was destroyed in this country about a hundred
years ago by the large, steam-powered roller mills built at the docks
to mill imported grain from Canada, and in England all of these small
mills failed and closed in the first half of the century.
Eling struggled
on just doing animal feed, as did many other millstone-using flour
mills, but by 1936 all of the tidal powered machinery had broken down
and there was no money left to fix it. For ten years the last miller
carried on with a small diesel engine running the animal feed machinery,
all milling ceased in 1941 and the mill was abandoned in 1946 (however
Tom Mackerel continued to collect the tolls from the Millers House
until he retired in 1970), and just left to rot until 1975. |
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Resurrection
In 1975 the Mill was bought by New Forest District Council (the local
government body) who began work to save it from collapse, and to
restore it as a site of some industrial archaeological importance.
Eling Tide Mill Trust was then set up to oversee the final phase
of the restoration, and to administer the Mill as a working mill/museum
after the Mill reopened in 1980.
The mill originally had two waterwheels, each driving two sets of millstones.
We have restored one wheel with one set of millstones and left the
other side un-restored so that people can see the machinery without
modern safety screens around it.
Today we are one of only five tide mills open to the public in the
United Kingdom, the others being: The House Mill (Bromley by Bow) in
London, Thorrington Mill in Essex, Carew Mill in Pembrokeshire, and
Woodbridge Mill in Suffolk. |
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Milling
For proper milling
the tide should be complete off the water-wheel; the actual grinding
is done by the lands (the flat surfaces) of the stones. You should
not run the mill machinery without feeding grain through it, as it
will cause the stones to spark. As flour dust is combustible in the
air, there is a very real risk of fire or explosion. The mill can
produce 1.5 Kg of flour every minute. The working set of millstones
are French Burr stones, weighing roughly half a ton each. |
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The Stones
The stones are
French Burr Grit Stones, quarried from the Parisian Basin (roughly
30km South-east of Paris). They have a diameter of approximately
four feet (48 inches) and weigh roughly half a tonne each. They are
also very expensive; the last time a new set of French Burr Stones
were sold, (in 2003) they sold for £20,000.
The stones can mill somewhere between 60 t0 90 KG of wholemeal flour
each hour, however as Eling Tide Mill currently only mills and sells
eight tonnes a year we produce far less than our potential maximum
output. |
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Average
Speed of the Stones
Normal
rate of Stones for Milling 60 rpm
Fastest we run the Stones 90 rpm
Fastest we could run the Stones 120 rpm |
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The Grain
Canute Flour
The grain comes from Doves Farms who are based in Hungerford,
Berkshire., a large company who have farms situated all around the
country. They grow an organic grain and because England doesn’t have
the best climate for growing grain, the idea of having fields in
many different regions of the UK ensures that the sporadic English
weather will produce a naturally occurring, high protein grain.
Flour of the Forest
The “Flour of the Forest” brand flour is milled with a
locally grown grain that we get from the Manor of Cadland Estate in the New
Forest. This grain can be grown in the same region each time because artificial
nitrates are used to ensure a high protein level regardless (to a
degree) of climatic conditions. |
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