Clewer Mill Stream is a narrow twisting backwater of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

near

Windsor, Berkshire Windsor is a historic town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch. The town is situated we ...

, England, which leaves the main river at Bush Ait and rejoins just above Queen Elizabeth Bridge. It is about 1.5 miles long. Clewer Mill Stream is named after the

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 mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

that it once drove. Clewer Mill Stream has provided food, power, fresh water, safe harbour and navigable access to the Thames for the small settlement of

Clewer Clewer (also known as Clewer Village) is an ecclesiastical parish and an area of Windsor, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. Clewer makes up three wards of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, namely Clewer North, Cle ...

since the 10th century. In 1198 the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

s of Bisham granted a

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish far ...

at Clewer to Richard de Sifrewast. The

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

at Clewer was first mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

with a value of 10

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currency, currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 1 ...

s and there has been a building on the site ever since. In 1781 the mill burnt down and its machinery, which had been visited by

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

as it was so "singular and curious", was destroyed. The mill was rebuilt after the fire, and although the water level was affected by the building of the

weir A weir or low-head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the water level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

s at Romney and Boveney Locks, Clewer Mill was operational until the late 19th century. In the 1920s Clewer Mill House was the home of a Mrs Moscockle who used to dress like Queen Mary and wave regally to pedestrians from her

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

as she was driven around Windsor. Clewer Mill Stream was once a popular haunt of schoolboys from nearby

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

although it was, along with the Thames itself, officially out-of-bounds and a punishment of 100 lines could be given by a

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

er to any "lower boy" (roughly the first two years) caught "shooting ater birds/nowiki> in the Clewer Stream". An account from the 1840s of life at Eton describes the thrill of

sculling Sculling is the use of oars to propel a boat by moving them through the water on both sides of the craft, or moving one oar over the stern. A long, narrow boat with sliding seats, rigged with two oars per rower may be referred to as a scull, its ...

up the backwater to the mill and waiting until the "miller was at dinner" to carry one's

skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats, usually propelled by sails or oars. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for work, leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-pers ...

around the mill wheel and launch it into the "mill-stream where it was really dangerous, above the wheel". The tract of land between Clewer Mill Stream and the main channel of the Thames is a meadow called The Rays which has been used for

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

meetings since 1866. It is now the site of Royal Windsor Racecourse. The upstream part of Clewer Mill Stream from Bush Ait forms the entrance channel to Windsor Racecourse Marina, providing a maximum

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

of , but much less during

drought A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, ...

. The downstream section, below the marina is unnavigable by powered craft except for a short reach from the mouth of the stream upstream to Clewer Boatyard. At the downstream end, just before the stream rejoins the main river Thames, is White Lilies Island.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Berkshire 0ClewerMillStream