Monument record MDR13029 - Batch Mill/Derbyshire Marble Works (site of), Watts Green, Ashford in the Water

Batch Mill, also known as the Derbyshire Marble Works, was erected in about 1846 by George Redfern of Ashford. The Redferns were carriers, stone masons and marble workers who set up their works in Watt Green Road, beside the Wye. The mill was built behind Great Batch Hall and utilised some of the Hall's old farm buildings. The workshops were built to the rear of the house and a turbine was installed in about 1860. The turbine was fed from a covered inlet above a new weir in the Wye almost at right angles to the old weir which diverted water to Ashford corn mill downstream. Batch Mill could cut, polish and turn marble but was principally used to produce smaller items, often with decorative inlays. By the 1880s, however, the marble industry in Derbyshire was in decline, and Redfern's Derbyshire Marble Works probably closed before 1890. today a modern house stands on the site of the old workshops behind Great Batch Hall. Some of the outbuildings survive, as does the concealed water course with the turbine, still in its casing, lying in it. (1). The 2nd ed. 25" Ordnance Survey map marks the site as 'Saw Mill'. (2)