Staverton Mill is an historic woollen mill and now a cereal factory on the River Avon in the village of Staverton near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England.

History

A mill is first mentioned in the 11th century Doomsday Book at ''Stavretone.'' By the end of the 14th century it had become a fulling mill to meet the burgeoning demand for woollen broadcloth, with a stone weir to control flow to the water wheels. About 1800 the old mill was bought by John Jones. He demolished the old building and erected the current mill. In July 1802 the mill, called the "Staverton Superfine Woollen Manufactory" was attacked as part of a series of disputes about pay. By 1813, Staverton mill had 40 looms. In 1897, the mill was sold to the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co. to facilitate expansion of their

condensed milk Condensed milk is cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of ''sweetened condensed milk'' (SCM), to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condens ...

production, after which the top two stories were removed and the building became offices, a canteen and stores. The new owners replaced the water wheel with a vortex water turbine and installed equipment including copper vacuum pans, coolers, heaters and a basic filling and packing line. The 19th-century mill chimney was replaced in 1913 when the boiler house was modernised. The new chimney was built in brick by the German firm Alphons Custodis, was 172 feet high with a 6 ft 6in diameter, and cost £1,056 to construct. There was a cast-iron water tank built by Dortmund around the chimney, halfway up its height. The factory's output was sent by rail from

Holt Junction Holt Junction was a railway station which served the village of Holt, Wiltshire, England between 1861 and 1966. It stood on the Wessex Main Line at its junction with the western end of the Devizes branch. History The Wilts, Somerset and We ...

station, some distant by road. A large covered loading bay was built at the station in 1909, which remained in use until 1934 when the factory gained a direct connection to the railway. Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co. became Nestlé in December 1935 and by 1936 local farmers were supplying more than of milk per annum to be condensed at the mill. A new manufacturing block was constructed on the site in 1935 to improve efficiency, and the top four stories of the mill building's original six were demolished. Two years later, the workforce had increased to 255. The site is labelled "Staverton Condenser" on an Ordnance Survey map published in 1958.

Later 20th century

In 1967 a new plant known as the "baked bean factory" was built on the site for Crosse & Blackwell at a cost of £750,000. The milk cannery closed in 1972 and was refitted as a yoghurt manufacturing plant, dovetailing with Nestlé's 1978 acquisition of the Chambourcy brand. By 1980 the factory was producing 72 million pots of yoghurt per annum. Nestlé produced cans on the site for many years, for the milk plant and later for the bean factory, which produced cans of baked beans and pasta in sauce (sold under their own label and for supermarket own-brands). The can manufacturing unit was closed on the site in 1989, as cans could be procured from Metal Box more cheaply than they could be made, and Nestlé as a whole moved away from over a century of can-making (except for odd sizes e.g. for catering coffee and milk powder, which continued to be made at Dalston, near Carlisle). The brick chimney was a local landmark for much of the century, but was demolished in 1989 and replaced with a much taller metal stack. The factory at Staverton 1984

Present

The Cross & Blackwell factory closed in 1995 and the site was transferred to Cereal Partners, makers of breakfast cereals. The Nestlé desserts factory closed in 2004. In 2011 the metal chimney was removed, as it was not required by the cereal-making plant. The site is also the location of the head office of Trapeze Group UK, a supplier of software for public transport management.

History

Later 20th century

Present

References

Further reading