1830's Millers/Mills near Barking, Essex

[karrienz]

Hi everyone in Essex; hoping someone could help me with some info on a possible mill/windmill that would be near/in or around Barking or East Ham in 1838.  I had deduced that my miller ancestor, William Titshall, who married Sarah Rayner in 1838 - Parish Church East Ham would be working somewhere in the vicinity.  I have finally got their marriage registration and the residence for the couple was Barking.  There is a long list of mills in Essex on Wiki for the but nothing appears to be near.  The witnesses at the time were William Dennison and William Frost Howell - can't find anything on 1841 census to suggest a mill or miller connection.

At some point by 1841; William and Sarah Titshall had made their way over to live in Isleworth, Middx where she had died in early February.  Sarah's father was Bartholemew Rayner, and she was baptised in 1816 in Billericay - Independant Meeting House.

Any help appreciated, thanks

[Scrabble]

There were certainly mills there, this is from British History on-line

"The accounts of the reeve of Westbury and Dagenham for 1321–2 list in great detail the running expenses of what was evidently a large water-mill, belonging to Barking Abbey. (fn. 56) This may have been identical with one of the two mills mentioned in Domesday, and it was probably situated near the abbey, at the point where the Roding joins Barking Creek, on or near the site certainly occupied by Barking mill, sometimes called the 'great mill' from the 17th century onwards. (fn. 57) Barking mill appears to have descended, after the Dissolution, with the manor of Barking. In the 1850's it was on lease, at £400 a year, to Francis Whitbourne, who had spent £8,000 on it. (fn. 58) Later it was occupied by T. D. Ridley & Sons, who operated it, partly by steam, until about 1890, afterwards retaining an office there, but concentrating production at Chelmsford. (fn. 59) The mill stood on the north side of what is now High Bridge Road, which spans Barking Creek at its junction with the river. In 1832 it was a large gabled building with a smaller weather-boarded structure, probably a warehouse, to the south of it. (fn. 60) The warehouse was replaced c. 1870 by a four-storied building of stock brick, connected to the older mill by a bridge over the road. The old mill, which had lost its front gables in the 19th century, was demolished in 1922, together with the early-18th-century mill-house which stood beside it. (fn. 61) In 1964 only the four-storied warehouse, then a plastics factory, was still standing.

The Wellington mill, thus named because it was built in 1815, was a windmill, situated immediately east of Back River, and south of New (now London) Road. It was a weather-boarded smock mill, with an early-19th-century brick house beside it. It was occupied in the later 19th century by Francis Whitbourne, and subsequently by the Firman family, who by 1906 had converted it to electric power. It was demolished in 1926. (fn. 62)"

[karrienz]

Thanks for that reply 'Scrabble' - gives a clear description of the location of the mills; I'll try and locate them in the 1841 census; thinking that although William Titshall had moved out of the area by then, he may have been there for some time.  William remarrid in 1843 and by 1851 was living in Chalfont St Giles, Bucks - he later became a foreman at a mill in Bermondsey.  Presently trying to tie in some of the names associated with him; mills and his apprenticeship.

regards
Karen