Combe Mill is a historic

sawmill 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 (dimensi ...

adjacent to the

River Evenlode The River Evenlode is a river in England which is a tributary of the Thames in Oxfordshire. It rises near Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire in the Cotswold Hills and flows south-east passing near Stow-on-the-Wold, Charlbury, Bladon, and Cass ...

and close to Combe railway station, between the villages of

Combe A combe (; also spelled coombe or coomb and, in place names, comb) can refer either to a steep, narrow valley, or to a small valley or large hollow on the side of a hill; in any case, it is often understood simply to mean a small valley through wh ...

and

Long Hanborough Long Hanborough is a village in Hanborough civil parish, about northeast of Witney in West Oxfordshire, England. The village is the major settlement in Hanborough parish. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,630. History An ...

in Oxfordshire,

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 ...

. 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 Ir ...

, it was restored in the early 1970s and is open to the public.

History

The mill was built in 1852 as the workshop for the Blenheim Palace Estate, replacing an early 17th-century flour mill sold to

George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, (26 January 1739 – 29 January 1817), styled Marquess of Blandford until 1758, was a British courtier, nobleman, and politician from the Spencer family. He served as Lord Chamberlain between 1762 a ...

in 1766. The mill was originally powered by a waterwheel. In 1886, a beam engine and

Cornish boiler A shell or flued boiler is an early and relatively simple form of boiler used to make steam, usually for the purpose of driving a steam engine. The design marked a transitional stage in boiler development, between the early haystack boilers and ...

were installed to allow operation when the river's flow was low. The engine stopped working around 1922 and lay idle until its restoration. The wood waterwheel was replaced in 1934 with a metal one, and the shaft replaced by the present timber one. The waterwheel was the mill's principal source of power for about 40 years, except for a time during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

when the government installed auxiliary stationary steam engines, and the mill was commandeered by the War Office to produce props and duck-boards for use in the battlefield trenches. In the 1950s, electric power was brought to the mill and the waterwheel became less important. When it ceased to be used in the mid-1960s, the

leat A leat (; also lete or leet, or millstream) is the name, common in the south and west of England and in Wales, for an artificial watercourse or aqueduct dug into the ground, especially one supplying water to a watermill or its mill pond. Othe ...

was filled in and

sluices Sluice ( ) is a word for a channel controlled at its head by a movable gate which is called a sluice gate. A sluice gate is traditionally a wood or metal barrier sliding in grooves that are set in the sides of the waterway and can be considered ...

buried.

Restoration

In 1969, a working party from the City and County Museum (now the County Museum) at Woodstock surveyed the site and began negotiations with the Duke of Marlborough to restore the beam engine and boiler; and in September 1972, the engine was successfully steamed for the first time in sixty years. The Combe Mill Society was formed, and the mill opened to the public in 1975. Since then, other parts of the mill have been restored. The mill still contains several historic trade catalogues from which hardware was once selected for use around the estate. It also has several day books from the mid-19th century, showing the names of workers and details of their earnings and day-to-day jobs.

Access

The mill is open between March and October, and is in steam on the third Sunday of those months. Schools and community groups may book visits at any time. The mill has a working forge, where visitors have the opportunity to make their own fireplace pokers.

References

External links

Combe Mill website
Museums with year of establishment missing Preserved beam engines Museums in Oxfordshire Mill museums in England Steam museums in England Technology museums in the United Kingdom Grade II* listed buildings in Oxfordshire Industrial archaeological sites in England {{UK-museum-stub