Tidal Mill at Yarmouth.....any information

[Ringrose]

Yesterday I was thrilled to find the house that my ggrandfather lived in in 1891 when he was a foreman at a mill.Finding the Yarmouth mill nearby I think this must have been where he worked.Does anyone know when this mill stopped operations.A visit to Newport record office revealed that the mill pond became silted up probably due to the building of a railway viaduct.As ggrandfather was elsewhere by 1901 I wondered if the mill closed during the 1890s.Any info would be appreciated
Thank you
Ringrose

[KGarrad]

Take a look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFL-ebVjgII
and http://www.lymington.org/walks/riveryarwalk.html

And this article:http://freespace.virgin.net/iw.history/yarmouth/history.htm
says:
In September 1875 Mr. J. Blake, the miller, "entertained his workmen and their wives in his commodious steam mill." Steam power had been introduced, certainly by 1845 (old map of that date), to supplement the tidal stream and the mill was still working. It was unoccupied by the time of the 1901 Census

and

An agreement dated 10 October 1899, held by the County Record Office, Newport, (ref..ELD87/38/11/55) between James Blake, merchant of Yarmouth, and Alan Bradbury, coal merchant of Southampton, was for "the lease of a further part of Yarmouth Mill for six months and for the purchase of the stock in trade of the Mill" The adjacent gas works had been built in 1859. A further document (ref. ELD87/38/11/66) dated 19 March 1900 concerns the transfer of the legal estate, including the Mill, mortgaged by James Blake for £1641. In the 1901 Census the Mill is shown as unoccupied.

In later years the Mill became a private residence and was eventually owned by A.J.P.Taylor, the historian and TV personality. It is still owned by his sons, Giles and Sebastion, but it now comprises a number of holiday apartments for renting.


More here: "Wight Life" "The Tides Are Free"
http://woottonbridgeiow.org.uk/wightlife/tides.php

The buildings of Yarmouth tide mill still exist having been converted into living accommodation. They were built in 1793 — a bleak looking structure of brick with a slate roof, obviously more with utility than beauty in mind. The northern half, beside which Thorley Brook still trickles sluggishly through the tide flaps in the dam wall, was the 'works', whilst the southern half was the miller's house. The embankment for the railway to Freshwater, which was opened in 1888 and closed in 1935, cuts right across the middle of the tide pond and must, surely, have been the cause of the failure of the mill. Perhaps, at that time, the owner of the mill anticipated conversion to steam power for the stump of a chimney which still stands among the foundations of a ruined extension at the north-east corner of the building proves the existence of an engine. Probably the cost of this kind of motive power killed the project even in those days. It certainly would have if the mill had remained operative into our times.

[Ringrose]

Thank you so much for all that information and the trouble you've taken in finding it for me.Sorry about delay in thanking you but we found we had no Internet on return home .Quite a few answers to my queries about ggrandfather have been answered.
Ringrose