Sadler's Mill, also referred to as Saddlers Mill, is a

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...

Romsey Romsey ( ) is a historic market town in the county of Hampshire, England. Romsey was home to the 17th-century philosopher and economist William Petty and the 19th-century British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, whose statue has stood in the t ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is probably the best known of Romsey's surviving mills and is apparently the only mill to be developed on the main course of the

River Test The River Test is a chalk stream in Hampshire in the south of England. It rises at Ashe near Basingstoke and flows southwards for to Southampton Water. Settlements on the Test include the towns of Stockbridge and Romsey. Below the village o ...

. The existence of Sadler's Mill is first recorded in the 16th century, when it was owned by the manor of Great and Little Spursholt. Functioning as a corn and grist mill, it has passed through a succession of owners including

Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...

who rebuilt it in 1747 and sold it in 1777 to one Benjamin Dawkins. Following another succession of owners it returned to the

Broadlands Broadlands is an English country house, located in the Civil parishes in England, civil parish of Romsey Extra, near the town of Romsey in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, England. The formal gardens and historic landscape of Broadlands ...

estate in 1889. Milling ceased in 1932, when the mill building became redundant. The

estate sold the building in 2003, at which point it was close to collapse having been derelict for many years. Anthony and Sarah de Sigley, restored the building in 2005, rebuilding much of the original structure. During the restoration evidence of an earlier structure was found;

carbon-14 dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

established the age of this to be ''c.'' 1650. The restoration was completed by Dave Northway and Amanda Deeming, the new owners from 2008 onwards. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Recorded history

* 1573 Sir Raphe Sadler * 1718 Sparsholt Mill bought by William Horne and Andrew Martin * 1745 Sold to

* 1748 New Corn Mill built “Spursholt New Mills” with one small grist mill. Mill House built * 1777 Sold to Benjamin Dawkins * 1813 Sold to James Fish with two

water wheels A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...

* 1846 sold to William Fripp * 1846 sold to Aine Burt and becomes known as “Burt’s Mill” * 1851

saw mill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ( dimens ...

installed * 1876 sold to William Jeffery * 1889 sold to A Ashley and becomes part of the

estate again * 1931 Milling Ceased. WE Holloway is the last

miller A miller is a person who operates a Gristmill, mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Mill (grinding), Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surname ...

. * 1968

Turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...

generation ceases * 2003 Sold to Anthony and Sarah de Sigley * 2005

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

and modernisation of the Mill House complete and sold to Garry and Vanessa Venturi * 2007 The Wheel House sold to David and Sally Ellis * 2008 Sadlers Mill - The Mill sold to Dave Northway and Amanda Deeming requiring restoration * 2011 The Mill House sold to David and Aimee Anderson

References

{{Reflist Watermills in Hampshire Romsey Grade II listed buildings in Hampshire

Recorded history

See also

References