Monument record MDR12594 - Ilkeston Mill (site of), River Erewash, Ilkeston

There were clearly several mills on the River Erewash at Ilkeston, but little detailed information has been found to date. A record of 1688 states that George Corker, miller of Ilkeston, told the minister he would not pay the stated Lord's rent for his watermill, only 'a noble and a quarter', this evidently relating to tithe payments. The same record claims the mill at that time to be 376 years old. The dispute with the minister was not resolved until 1798 when a piece of common land was exchanged in lieu of tithes on the ancient mill. Simmons notes a number of millers fro the town who were found bankrupt but it has not been possible to relate the millers' names found in the various directories to specific mills. (1) A mill site is recorded at Ilkeston in Domesday Book, with further references to the mill in the 1340s. This medieval mill is assumed to have stood on the same site as the later mill, shown on maps of 1598 and 1798. There appears to be no mention of it in use after 1845, and it was described in 1880 as ‘now completely decayed, few traces of the structure remaining’. (2) The current course of the river in the mill area was originally the mill head and tail races, the original course having been further to the north-east. This is shown on a number of historic maps, for example Sanderson's map of 1835. (3)