Late C16 building, probably a fishing lodge, later converted to mill, now house. <1>

Although six Colchester watermills were recorded in Domesday (1086), it seems unlikely that Bourne Mill site was one of the six. However only ten years later a foundation charter of St Johns Abbey (1096) records the donation of two fish ponds and a mill (most likely Bourne Mill) by Eudo Dapifer. The Chartulary of St Johns Abbey records agreements over land in the C12 and C13, revealing the proximity of lands to Bourne Mill, Bourne Pond and the Abbeys fish pond. Of the four millers recorded in Colchester in 1301, one is thought to be the tenant of Abbots Mill at Bourne pond. As recorded in the Court Rolls of Colchester, the abbey leased Bourne Mill to a succession of millers from the early C14 through to the C16. John Rogger of Colchester was tenant in 1326, followed by John Halle (1333), John Wyger (1336-40), John Stokfysh (1345-46), William Speller (1351), Thomas Knop (1352 and 1356-66), John Knyght (1354), John Bellamy (1372), John Smart (1374-78), John Potton (1406), Thomas Sawyer (1413-14) and Thomas Buxstone (1525). Records show that Bourne Mill remained a corn grinding mill through the C14 and C15 as lessees were regularly amerced for faulty measures and excessive tolls. There is no evidence for Bourne Mill working as a fulling mill during the later Middle Ages although the possibility cannot be dismissed.

Following the dissolution in 1538 the Abbey and other assets passed into the hands of the Crown. Bourne Mill remained such until 1544 when it was granted, along with other lands, to Richard Duke for £163, 12s 8d. Duke immediately sold on Bourne Mill to alderman Augustine Beriff and his son William who leased the mill and by 1580 ‘alienated’ the mill and pond to miller John Gibson. He subsequently sold Bourne Mill to Sir Thomas Lucas in 1590. The Lucas family already leased Cannock Mill (downstream) from 1575 and it also latterly passed to Sir Thomas from 1594. Thomas Lucas wasted little time in improving or rebuilding his newly acquired asset, as demonstrated by the panel on the south gable wall dating to 1591. It remains unclear whether this building was entirely new and separate from a pre-existing mill built close-by or entirely replaced a former watermill,

During the first half of the C17 at around 1632 Bourne Mill was leased by Dutch refugees who converted it into a fulling mill associated with the manufacture of bays (or baize), a significant part of Colchester’s early trade and wealth. Despite the outcome of the second English Civil War (1648), the execution of Royalist Charles Lucas and the destruction of the Lucas household at St Johns Abbey, it is recorded in 1651 that John Lucas still retained ownership of the mill, its lands and meads. The Lucas estate descended to Mary Lucas who took both Bourne and Cannock Mills as part of the marriage settlement when she married Anthony Grey the 11th Earl of Kent in 1668. By 1730 the mill was leased to George Scrivener, whose lease highlighted the importance of the mill for hunting and fishing in addition to its milling income. From 1778-1792 Samuel Wright was miller while an estate surveyors report of 1797-8 records: ‘The mill is for the sole purpose of fulling baize, flannel etc, the demand for which is at present very small….if trade should continue bad, it may be of advantage to the Estate to put a pair of low millstones to grind corn, in the mill’. The same observation was made about Cannock Mill, which presumably also operated as a fulling mill from the C17. However, Bourne Mill continued fulling or at least was not converted to corn immediately as a valuation in 1809 by John Wiggins records ‘a small fulling mill which required repair’. A subsequent survey of 1824 notes that the mill was very respectably owned by Mr DeValle (a significant Colchester based baize manufacturer) who uses it as a cording and spinning mill. It is not clear when Bourne mill ceased fulling but it was probably around 1830-40, and at a point when many other mills in Essex went over to grinding corn. Whites Directory records corn miller Henry Digby tenanting Bourne and Cannock mills by 1863. He remained the main lessee until 1878 and may have been replaced (or sub tenanted) following his death by Arthur Pulford from c.1880. Pulford is described as a miller (water and steam) and corn merchant at both mills in 1898. Pulfords son Alfred. E. Pulford worked Bourne mill from 1926 and until its shaft broke in 1935.

A.E.Pulford placed the mill on the market in 1935. This was brought to the attention of the National Trust who after an inspection by architect J.E.M. MacGregor and millwright John Bryant finally purchased the mill in 1936 for £1,050. It is recorded in England Under the Trust (1937) ‘as in good condition, the machinery was still in position but of little interest being of C19 date’. By 1943 the National Trust were considering converting the mill to residential use and engaged architect Marshall Sisson to draw up plans, though the scheme fell through by 1947. Proposals for a lease with Colchester Borough Council failed and by 1950 the mill was derelict. In 1951 the Trust leased the mill to Major Ponder and agreed with his requirement to convert to a private residence. They also agreed to remove the C18-19 bay making sheds set against the northern wall, to convert the interior to a simple dwelling but otherwise to leave the mill machinery alone. At this point it was listed grade I with a note recording mill machinery, three great grindstones and a waterwheel. After the failed tenancy with Ponder and later Major Heriman, proposals were made to properly convert the mill to a house by removing the machinery. On the advise of SPAB these were rejected at first, but persuaded by the deterioration of the building, the conversion was accepted as long as the machinery was properly recorded and some pieces left in situ. However the conversion proved to be too expensive. By 1959 it was leased as a Field Centre at which point the Trust removed substantial elements of the machinery. The next tenants continued the process of ‘conversion’with the partitioning of the upper floors and removal of the remaining machinery and mill stones (by 1968). From 1964 it was leased to Peter Watts and between 1971-1979 by local artist Andrew Dodds. Estimates for repairs to the stonework and waterwheel made in the early 1970s topped £5000, while another to get the wheel turning once more came in at around £3000. In 1974 Rex Wailes (millwright) was invited to inspect what was left of the machinery and was disappointed that the machinery and stones had been ‘unnecessarily scrapped’ <2>

Bourne Mill is situated toward the southern extent of Colchester town, to the west of the Hythe and Old Heath and along Bourne Road. Formerly lying on a quiet tributary of the Colne the mill now lies in a rather incongruous location sandwiched between C19 and later housing developments. The river course flows on an east-west direction downstream to Cannock Mill, Distillery Pond and Hulls Mill (now demolished) and eventually via a culvert beneath the Haven Road Industrial Park, to the Colne. Borne Pond was created by embanking and widening the river along its eastern edge, thus forming a large mill and fishing pond capable of providing a sufficient head of water to power the fulling mills. The mill butts up against the eastern embankment and was built so that its lower storey containing the wheel pit and overshot waterwheel lies below the level of the mill pond while the upper or stone floor is above. The short mill leat enters the wheel pit centrally from the west and spent water is channelled away via a culverted tail race emerging at a short distance to the east. A modern sluice gate, in a permanently open position, drains into a bypass channel that skirts around to the south of the mill and rejoins the watercourse c.72m downstream. The mill cottage lies to the NE of the mill.
Built in 1591 by the Lucas family Bourne Mill is thought to have been constructed as a dual purpose structure incorporating a fulling mill within the lower storey and a fishing lodge heated by two fire places on the first floor. The attic or bin floor is a later insertion of c.1830-40 associated with its use as a corn mill. The mill is built over five bays and 2½ storeys with elaborate Dutch gables to the north and south elevations, each with curved and voluted off-sets mounted with pinnacles and an octagonal chimney stack at the apex. In the south gable is a stone panel inscribed ‘Thomas Lucas, miles, me fecit Anno Domini 1591’. The pitched roof is covered with red clay plain tiles and incorporates inserted C19 gable dormers to the front and rear and a central C19 weather-boarded lucam supported on straight braces. The lucam rises above the eaves and is cantilevered from the level of the lower purlin. It lies above a central loading door inserted into the façade at first floor during the C19. Original windows on the front and rear have stone mullions and moulded labels. An original arched doorway with a square-headed surround and moulded label lies within the northern bay and below a moulded panel bearing the Lucas arms. Diagonal angle buttresses and a single two table buttress provide additional support to the eastern bays against the weight of the mill pond and action of the waterwheel. The walls of the building are constructed partly reusing C12 and C13 materials recovered from St John's Abbey. They comprise an amalgam of limestone pieces (some dressed), septaria and brick set into lime mortar with joints dressed using ‘strings’ of angular black flints.
Despite the mills conversion to a dwelling house and the removal of much of the auxiliary machinery, fixtures fittings and the millstones, it still retains an operational C19 overshot iron wheel, upright drive train and a layshaft with pulleys. The recently restored iron-framed wheel produces approximately 14 hp and measures 18ft in diameter, 5ft in width and has 64 steel buckets. It is fed by an iron trough or penstock with a shut mechanism that finely controls the through-put of water to the wheel. The present circular iron wheel shaft or axle is a later adaptation and replacement of a heavier square section timber axle. The size and form of the original axle can be seen in the castings of each wheel hub. Although the wheel turns freely it suffers from back watering due to problems with the tail. The waterwheel drives a bevelled iron pit wheel and iron wallower mounted onto a timber octagonal upright shaft rising to the level of the binding joists at first floor. Just below the spur wheel the upright shaft is decorated using lambs tongue stop chamfers, a feature popular during the C16 and C17. The spur wheel has apple wood cogs and engages with a bevelled wooden gear mounted onto a layshaft. This in turn turns a pulley belt driving the sack hoist on the floor above and a large drum belt driving auxiliary machinery (removed) on the stone floor. Although no evidence of the stone nuts or the millstone apparatus survive, some individual millstones remain on site.
Bourne Mill is presently owned by the National Trust, who maintain the fabric of the building, have conserved and repaired the surviving mill apparatus and actively promote the mill by encouraging visitors during the summer months. At the time of the survey the National Trust were undertaking a restoration of the lucam and repairs to the dormer windows.
Present Use: Visitor Attraction owned by the National Trust
Condition: Good
An exceptional, ostentatious and unusual dual purpose building with a complicated history; first built as a corn mill and fishing lodge, later converted to fulling and then back to corn milling. Bourne mill is unique in Essex and it is unlikely that many other similar mills/buildings combining an industrial and social function were built or remain on a regional or national level. It is also one of earliest mills to survive in the county, with only two other examples, Lt Braxted and Wethersfield Mills thought to retain C16 or earlier fabric. It is also one of a very few overshot mills to be built in Essex, one of only two that retain a waterwheel (the other Spring Valley Mill) and the only watermill to preserve a working overshot wheel. <3>