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Building record MDR7163 - Hartshorne Screw Mill, Ticknall Lane, Hartshorne

Type and Period (5)

  • (Stuart to Georgian - 1675 AD? to 1765 AD?)
  • (Georgian to Victorian - 1780 AD? to 1845 AD?)
  • (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
  • (Victorian - 1845 AD? to 1900 AD)
  • ? (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Full Description

In the late 18th and 19th centuries there was a considerable manufacture of wood screws at Hartshorne. In 1796 the owners were Shorthouse, Wood & Co. They employed 59 people at that time and made on average 1200 gross per week, by means of 36 engines or lathes, turned by a waterwheel. In 1830 the mill belonged to Smith, Port, Wood & Co. (1) Screw mill operated between 1776 to 1846, producing lathe turned woodscrews; the building survives [in 1969] but is derelict. (2) Site of blast furnace in use by 1699, perhaps abandoned between 1702 and 1712. Operated by Jenners family, and perhaps later by the Mathers. Site later occupied by a screw mill. (3) (SK 325 213) Marked as Screw Mill on the OS map of 1836. (4) Marked as Saw Mill on late 19th century OS maps, with Mill Pond named immediately to the east. (5, 6) Buildings depicted but not named on the OS map of 1970; the site of the mill pond is shown as woodland. (7) Now [in 1995] the Old Mill Wheel public house. Site of mill pond can still be distinguished in the woodland to the east (8) Farey refers to the site of an old charcoal furnace at Hartshorne in 1811. Leases of 1699 and 1702 indicate that it was then at work and was in the hands of John Jennens of Erdington. It was described as disused by William Woolley in about 1712 but appears as 'Hawthorn' in the list of closures between 1750 and 1788, bracketed with the furnace at Kirkby-in-Ashfield and said to have been operated by the Mathers, who succeeded Jennens at Kirkby and elsewhere. Farey, whose dates are usually reliable, said that it had been abandoned about 50 years previously (ie about 1760), which seems reasonable. The site was later used by a screw-forge. (9) Hartshorne Screw Mill. There was possibly a corn mill on the site originally, but by the 17th century this was converted into a furnace site which smelted iron in charcoal-fired furnaces and then worked it into wrought iron. A sale document of 1699 refers to 'the said John Jennings his furnace at Hartshorne'. In Farey's opinion this furnace last worked in c. 1765. The present Screw Mill building lies to the west of the Hartshorne to Ticknall road. Its large overshot wheel was fed through an iron pipe which ran under the road, bringing water from the mill pond immediately to the east of the road. There were two other smaller ponds higher up the stream but these were breached about 1937 and the mill pond itself was filled in, probably during the Second World War. The brick building, with a tiled roof, is about 60ft long by 25ft wide. The actual date of construction is unclear but in 1783 it was operated by Shorthouse, Wood & Co., listed in Bailey's Directory as screw-makers. They had purchased it as a disused corn mill when they moved there from Tatenhill Mill near Burton-on-Trent. The mill was initially used to make unpointed iron woodscrews in use before the modern type of screw was invented about 1834. In 1844, the owners of the mill, Smith, Port, Wood & Co., went bankrupt and in 1846 it was recorded that 'An extensive screw manufactory which gave employment to many hands has been discontinued'. The building was then used for corn milling, later as a saw mill, and finally as a malting, until about 1945, when a dispute over water rights stopped its supply and the mill subsequently became derelict. In 1987 it was totally refurbished and converted into a public house, 'the Old Mill Wheel'. The work included the restoration of a 23ft diameter iron waterwheel. (10)

Sources/Archives (12)

  • --- Bibliographic reference: Spavold, J (ed.). 1984. At the Sign of the Bulls Head, a History of Hartshorne and its Enclosure. p109-111.
  • --- Unpublished document: Clarke, D (ULAS). 2019. An Archaeological Watching Brief at the Mill Wheel, Ticknall Road, Hartshorne, Derbyshire, DE11 7AS.
  • <1> Article in serial: Jenkins, R. 1933-34. 'Historical notes on some Derbyshire industries', Transactions of the Newcomen Society. pp 163-177. p172.
  • <2> Bibliographic reference: Nixon, F. 1969. The Industrial Archaeology of Derbyshire. p124, 259.
  • <3> Article in serial: Cranstone, D. 1985. 'The iron industry of the Ashby coalfield', Bulletin of the Leicestershire Industrial Historic Society. Number 8, pp 23-31. p28.
  • <4> Map: Ordnance Survey (OS). 1836. One Inch First Edition map, sheet 71 first issued 1836, later revisions (David and Charles reprint sheet 35). 1inch : 1mile.
  • <5> Map: OS. 1887. OS County series 1:10560, sheet Derbys LX NE/Leics XV NE. Surveyed 1879-81, published 1887. 1:10560.
  • <6> Map: OS. 1938. OS County Series: 1:10560. Derbys LX NE/Leics XV NE. Provisional edition, revision of 1920-1, with additions in 1938. 1:10560.
  • <7> Map: OS. 1970. OS 1:10560.
  • <8> Index: RCHME. 1995. New National Forest Survey: 922919. 922919. p1093-4.
  • <9> Bibliographic reference: Riden, P. 1993. A Gazetteer of Charcoal-fired Blast Furnaces in Great Britain in use since 1660. 2nd ed.. pp 89-90.
  • <10> Article in serial: Gifford, A. 1993. 'Watermills on the Repton Brook', Wind & Water Mills. Number 12, pp 2-9. pp 2-4, Plate 1.

Map

Location

Grid reference Centred SK 327 213 (334m by 131m) (Centred on)
Civil Parish HARTSHORNE, SOUTH DERBYSHIRE, DERBYSHIRE

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (1)

  • EDR4992

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External Links (0)

Record last edited

Nov 14 2019 11:06AM

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