Monument record MDR8986 - Shirley Mill (site of), Hill Lane, Shirley

A mill at Shirley is listed in Domesday Book, worth two shillings. The last mill on the Shirley Brook was built in brick in about 1800, replacing an earlier mill. The mill was operated latterly by Frank Wright Ltd of Ashbourne. The breastshot wheel was about 15ft in diameter and 6ft wide, driving four pairs of stones, one of which was a French burr. The mill had a kiln, with cast iron plates supported on iron beams, for the drying of grain. Some time before the Second World War a boy was 'trapped in the machinery' and killed and the waterwheel was removed on the instructions of Sir Ian Walker, owner of the Osmaston Estate. Soon after the war, the now derelict mill was demolished and presently only the mill house and the water channels remain. Thomas Salt was miller in 1835, William Gilman in 1875 and John Kent in 1895. (1)