Stainsby Mill is a 19th-century

flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...

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 ...

Doe Lea Doe Lea is a small, linear village in the English county of Derbyshire. It is in the Bolsover district of the county and falls in the Ault Hucknall civil parish. The village runs along the old A617 road. A newer dual carriageway (currently the ...

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, England. The mill, which has been restored to full working order, 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 ...

and is under the ownership of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

.Stainsby Mill: Hardwick Estate information at the National Trust
/ref> The mill is part of the

Hardwick Hall Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire is an architecturally significant country house from the Elizabethan era, a leading example of the Elizabethan prodigy house. Built between 1590 and 1597 for Bess of Hardwick, it was designed by the architect Ro ...

estate.

History

A mill on this site appears to have existed from the early 13th century. Originally all the water for the mill came from the

River Doe Lea The River Doe Lea is a river which flows near Glapwell and Doe Lea in Derbyshire, England. The river eventually joins the River Rother near Renishaw. The river contained 1,000 times the safe level of dioxins in 1991, according to a statement m ...

which fed the Miller's Pond on the Hardwick estate. By 1762 the Stainsby Pond, fed by the Stainsby Brook, had been constructed and the water also fed into the Mill Pond which was situated on the other side of the road from the mill. Water was allowed into the

mill race A mill race, millrace or millrun, mill lade (Scotland) or mill leat (Southwest England) is the current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel ( sluice) conducting water to or from a water wheel. Compared with the broad waters of a mi ...

by sluice gates under the road.

The current mill

By the 1840s the mill had become dilapidated and

William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, (21 May 1790 K. D. Reynolds, ‘Cavendish, William George Spencer, sixth duke of Devonshire (1790–1858)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; ...

decided it needed rebuilding and re-equipping. The mill was substantially rebuilt in dressed stone from the Hardwick Estate and fitted with modern machinery, including a diameter breast shot

water wheel 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 ...

, between 1846 and 1850. It was in operation for a century until it finally closed in 1952. Up till 1865, the millers were members of the Saunders family who had worked the mill since 1689. Subsequently, the tenancy passed into the Hitch family for the rest of its working life, the last miller being William Hitch.

Preservation and restoration

As a result of the death of the 10th Duke of Devonshire in 1950, as part of the Hardwick Estate, the mill was passed to the government in lieu of

death duties An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died. International tax law distinguishes between an es ...

. It was given to the National Trust who carried out a partial restoration in 1976. As a result of a report on the mill's future by the Ault Hucknall Environment Group in 1990, a full restoration to working order was commenced in 1991 with the mill being opened to the public again in 1992.

References

External links

Hardwick Estate: Stainsby Mill
– National Trust National Trust properties in Derbyshire Tourist attractions in Derbyshire Watermills in Derbyshire Museums in Derbyshire Mill museums in England 1850 establishments in England {{Derbyshire-geo-stub