The History Group of the Sid Vale Association meets up every two months – when there is lively discussion on all manner of topics. The Sid River website regularly collects relevant pieces from the Notes from History Group meetings – and puts them together in specific pages on the History of the Sid section or as ‘news pieces’ in its weekly blog, for example, looking at culverts along Woolbrook Road.
This week’s piece takes note from the History Group’s latest meeting this month (November 2024) – where one ongoing discussion considered the history of mills along the Sid and its tributaries:
Margaret asked if any work had been done on the rivers. She had started looking at John Pearce, serge-maker, with a bankruptcy record, at Long Park in 1692. He has possible links with Samuel Pearce, who was known to have leased land at Marsh for his fulling mill. Brian commented that there were articles on the mills of the Sid Valley in Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries, Vol 34, 1978.
These records are indeed available under the Water mills in East Devon, Part X and Water mills in East Devon, Part XI but as reference only. There is a lot of information out there, although most of it is only available in non-digital formats or as part of library collections.
However, the Heritage Gateway website does provide quite a lot of information online, for example a possible reference to the ‘serge mill’ in the publication “Water Mills in East Devon” by MC Phillips and RE Wilson (1978 – 1981):
The site of two mills with close geographical and historical associations. Serge mill was built between 1789 and 1790. In 1824 it was converted from serge to silk manufacture and employed at one time 300-400 female labourers. Since 1897 it has had a variety of uses until its present use by Ottermill Switchgear. The overshot wheel was eventually replaced by a turbine
This same page links us to Adam de Radway’s Mill, Sidmouth – with a very substantial page of summaries:
Full description
Gibbens, G. H., 1950, A Short History of Sidmouth, 221 (Article in Serial). SDV337191.
Adam de Radway had a lawsuit with the monks of Otterton about his two-mills-under-one-roof. It ssed to stand about where Mr. Ford’s shop is now. All Saints Road was called Mill Lane until eighty years ago and its junction with Vicarage Road was called Mill Cross. Salcombe Regis owned both banks of the Sid and Radway had to bring a leat from the Woolbrook, which ran right down to the High Street until 1870. His house is thought to have been where a brick mansion was pulled down in 1825 to make room for Sidlands.
Phillips, M. C. + Wilson, R. E., 1978 – 1981, Water Mills in East Devon, 79-80 (Article in Serial). SDV102852.
Documentary records of the original manor mill date from 13th century. It was a water-powered corn and possibly fulling mill of which stone foundations have been found. Possibly two mills were under one roof. No mention of the manor mill after 1797. Two streams supplied mills with water, one running alongside All Saints Road (formerly Mill Lane), the other from the north alongside Vicarage Road. Town Mill was built in about 1817 on a nearby site and took the place of the old manor mill.
Bodman, M., 2003, Watermills and Other Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 206 (Report – Interim). SDV325576.
Mills in the Manor of Sidmouth were mentioned from 1619-1626 and fulling mills erected in 1674 were mentioned until 1708. A water grist mill called Sidmouth Mill was leased in 1796 which was fed by two streams. A new Town Mill was built at the end of the 18th century to replace Sidmouth Mills.
2010, Untitled Source, 1-2, 64 (Monograph). SDV348738.
8th September 1847. The ‘monks and Adam de Radways’ old mill at Mill Cross and other buildings were destroyed by fire. Mill Cross is opposite Mill Lane which is now called All Saints Church Road. A sketch of the mill shows the waterwheel on the front of the building. The location of the mill is shown on the frontispiece of Hutchinson’s History of Sidmouth volume 2.
Finally, keeping with Hutchinson and providing another example, the same Heritage Gateway site looks at what he had to say on the Site of the Mill Stream from Manor Mill on the east side of High Street in New Town in Sidmouth
So, there is quite a lot of information available online – including places such as the The Mills Archive and Historic England.
But the real digging has to be done with old-fashioned books and trips to libraries of collections!
Or a trip to the only remaining working mill on the Sid:
Sidbury Mill ‘Cheats’ Sourdough Bread | Greendale Farm Shop
With more fabulous photos of the Manor Mill of Sidbury at the E M Gardner Collection – Archive Catalogue
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