Blythe Bridge Mill

[mezentia]

I have discovered that the mill at Blythe Bridge was re-built in 1823. A mill on the site was previously owned by a Richard Stonier, and left in his will with "the House and yard thereunto belonging the Mill Dam Dockyard pingle and Gravelly Bank"  to his son William. William was declared bankrupt in 1822, which presumably means the mill was sold to cover his debts, and the purchaser rebuilt it in its current Gothic style.

Neither the 1769 Yates map of Staffordshire, nor the earliest OS map I can find (25 inch 1882) show any of the named features. The also seems to be a dearth of information about the older mill.

Are there any maps c1822 that might show the features listed in Richard's will? And what is a "pingle".

The will also mentions "Mills", plural. Was there ever more than one mill on the site? The will is online on FindMyPast.

Any help is appreciated.

[AlanBoyd]

Shorter OED
pingle noun, obsolete except dialect
A small enclosed piece of land; a paddock, a close.

[MollyC]

Check with Staffordshire Archives for an enclosure award, there appears to be parliamentary enclosure to the west of the mill; or otherwise a tithe map, which is usually a little later, c1840, and the tithe award schedule which goes with it.  Some of the names may have survived until then.

In the north of England a mill dam is the whole mill pond, not only the structure which creates the pond.  Silted-up dams often support trees which are younger than those surrounding it.  There are some features which do not answer your question but appear to show some kind of mill history.  The water management on the OS map is not straightforward.  Above Blythe Bridge Mill it stretches back to Caverswall Mill where there are parallel watercourses and sluices marked on the map sheet to the north.  A railway had carved through before the OS survey, dated 1878.  The river and the artificial watercourse appear to swap sides shortly before Blythe Bridge Mill.

There are two irregular elliptical areas upstream of the mill which have the appearance of being former dams, parcel numbers 865 and 1557, the latter being in the next parish.  There is a wandering parish boundary marked as being located C.Tk.D = Centre of the Track of the Ditch, which seems an insignificant feature to merit becoming a parish boundary.  In other words the boundary feature used to be more significant, a proper watercourse of some sort which has been moved elsewhere. - Just a few thoughts, there may be more to uncover.

[mezentia]

Alan, Molly, thank you. I had it down to look at tithe maps, just hadn't got round to it yet. I did find a couple of adverts in the Staffordshire Advertiser which confirms that William Stonier sold the mill in 1822, presumably to clear his debts. The mill was working with 3 pairs of stones at the time. It was sold and re-built and was then working 4 pairs of stones, and had a "Shulling mill" as well. I can't find anything about a Shulling mill, but suspect it could be fulling mill.  That said, shulling might mean shelling, as shelling peas, or clover for seed.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one with a Shorter Oxford on my shelves. Should think to use it more

[AlanBoyd]

This doesn't really add much, but I had a look at the tithe records for the mill. This is the Staffordshire/Dilhorne map: apportionment 1838; map 1839.

For the land where the mill stands:
landowner Thomas Hawe Parker Esquire (who owns quite a lot of land in the vicinity)
occupier Mrs Frances Broster

As I'm sure you know Frances Broster is recorded in both the 1841 and 1851 censuses as miller or miller/farmer at Blythemarsh.

Unfortunately this is a low-quality tithe map, with no detail at all of buildings. Mrs Broster is the occupier of 7 pieces of land totalling a little over 13 acres. One of these is described as Mill House Meadow, another as Big Mill Meadow.  Further to the definition of 'pingle' the smallest piece of land is 1r 14p and is described as 'Croft'.

As near as I can tell the place where the actual mill is situated is described as Brick Kiln Field.

Mill House Meadow is on the east side of Stallington Road now the primary school. Big Mill Meadow is land to the west of the mill pond. Croft is the land at the south end of the site bounded on the SW by the railway and on the SE by Stallington Road.

[AlanBoyd]

There are quite a few newspaper items (mills for sale) which refer to “a pair of shulling stones” as one of the attributes of the property, although the last such reference is in 1854. One item refers to “shulling oats”. And yes, I checked, these are printed as “shulling” they are not mistaken OCR of “shilling” (there are a lot of those too). But I cannot find a definition of the term.

[mezentia]

Allan, Molly

Thanks again for the information you have provided. May I please ask, however, if you are able to let me have links to your sources? The reason for asking is that I am curently documenting my Stonyer ancestors who were millers, and I am using an academic thesis as my template, which includes creating a comprehensive bibliography of sources that I have used during my research and that I draw upon to make any conclusions from my research.

At present, I am researching the 17th ancestors. This poses a number of significant challenges, not the least being the constant variation of the surname (e.g. Stonyer, Stonier, Stanier, Stonger, Stanger, Stonehewer, Stoner). Add to that the fact that as milers, they are mobile, and do not generally own the mill they are working. Historical documentation  about the mills generally refers either to the owner of the mill, or tenant or owner of the estate where the mill is located. Then, there seems to be a paucity of information about most mills before the mid 19th century or thereabouts. Yates maps of the 18thC are useful in showing the sites of mills, but then finding maps between then and the earliest OS maps is difficult. Tithe maps are usefull, but again don't help greatly with information before about 1840. I cannot help but note that the Staffordshire Past Track site crashed when attempts are made to use the link to Tithe Awards. I will report this when I have a moment.

The reference to shulling I haven't followed up yet myself, but the inferences that it refers to removing husks from seeds is I think correct. I have come across mills where seperating seeds from clover, for example, is carried out to make animal feed although ancilliary to the normal operation of the mill for making flour.

The Stoniers who, unusuallly, owned the freehold to Blythe Bridge Mill are not actually ancestors. I came across them during my research, but the geographical location and choice of first names for children are consistent with others that do form part of my family, and fit within the general focus of this specific piece of research on Stonyers as Millers. I will add the post 1822/1823 history of Blythe Bridge Mill as an appendix to my current research.

Thanks again for your help

[AlanBoyd]

I accessed the tithe apportionment information at thegenealogist.co.uk, which is a subscription site (so I didn’t post any links).

Newspaper articles mentioning shulling stones were found at British Newspaper Archive: I can certainly provide a few specific examples if you wish.

I also came across this site: https://new.millsarchive.org/
which has a record for Blythe Bridge Mill, although it isn’t a very rich record. The site also has a document about Advertisements noted in the “Staffordshire Advertiser” 1830 –1834 which includes one mention of shulling:

https://tinyurl.com/49hw55jv

[mezentia]

Sadly, tithe maps on the Genealogist are only available of the most expensive subscription, and simply I can't afford that together with all the other subscriptions I've got. 

I've looked extensively at the Mills Archive - I think the prices they charge for some of their stuff is very high. Having said that, it was one of their newsletters about millers in New Zealand that prompted me to start this particular bit of research, having offered to write a piece about my uncle William Stonyer who made a significant contribution to milling in NZ. As you may begin to appreciate, this has grown in scope somewhat significantly. I too was struck by how little information is known of many of the mills I'm researching, not only at the Mills Archive, but the MMG group as well, and a secondary aim is to try and put that right.

As I live not too far from Stoke, it might be simpler for me to make a visit to the new archive later on this year; I assume that they will have the tithe apportionment maps available to view.