Monument record MDR9845 - Forge Mill (site of), Makeney Road, Milford

The site is shown but not named on a late 19th century OS map. It is shown as 'Forge Mills (Flour') on an early 20th century OS map and as 'Forge Mills (disused)' on subsequent early and mid 20th century OS maps. (1, 2, 3, 4) When Hopping Mill was demolished in about 1820 a new corn mill was built downstream on the River Derwent on the site of the Makeney Forges, just below the horseshoe weirs. The new mill was known as 'Forge Mill' but, by 1895, had passed into the hands of the Fletcher Brothers and become known as 'Fletcher's Mill'. They were still listed as millers there in 1912 but in 1925 they had moved to nearby Idridgehay. The site is presently [in 1999] occupied by a garden centre but vestiges of the old uses can be found. (5) The Strutts started purchasing land in Milford in March 1781 and immediately began to construct the first structure in what was to become a complex of cotton mills and bleach works. At this point along its course the river had long been put to use to provide the power for industrial processes and Strutt's first acquisitions were two of these sites, the New Mills and the Makeney Forges and the Hopping Hill Meadow, which included a fulling mill. The industrial sites which were for so long the economic hub of the community have been reduced by the clearance of c. 1960 to a handful of later buildings and a range of archaeological features. To the south of the former cotton mill site, the Strutt's flour mill built on the Makeney forge site to replace the Duke's corn mill which they had demolished, remains. (6)