Blaydon Burn, Haggerstones Mill/Fenwick's Mill

HER Number:
3422

District:
Gateshead

Site Name:
Blaydon Burn, Haggerstones Mill/Fenwick's Mill

Place:
Blaydon Burn

Map Sheet:
NZ16SE

Class:
Industrial

Site Type: Broad:
Mill

Site Type: Specific:
Corn Mill

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:
C18

Form of Evidence:
Documentary Evidence

Description:
A ‘well known and well accustomed water corn mill, called Haggerstone’s Mill, being a populous situation, belonging to the Lords of Winlaton, and now occupied by Robert Turnbull as tenant’ was advertised to be let on the 15 April 1783 [Newcastle Chronicle]. Robert Trumble was still tenant in 1790, paying 15/- for a 16th part [NRO ZCO IV/41], but by 1796 had been succeeded by Thomas Wood [NRO ZCO IV 35]. The location of this mill is confirmed by an undated but probably late 18th century plan [DRO D/X 35/5] which shows a large building called ‘Winlaton Manor Mill’, almost identical in footprint to, and clearly on the site of, the Haggerston’s Mill marked on the 1st edition OS of 1856. There is no mention of the mill in the Silvertop (Dockendale) rentals for 1804, but in 1823 Matthias Dunn claimed, on behalf of P.E.Townely, the site of the mill dam and race now used by the Lords of Winlaton for Haggerstone’s Mill, the said lords only having right or privilege of water passing along their estate. [NRO 404/238]. In 1823 John Fenwick is given as tenant of a ‘messuage, mill, garth and land’ [NRO 404/238, 74] and about two years layer a ‘Corn Mill with 2 pair of stones’ occupied by the heirs of John Fenwick were valued at £25p.a. In 1825 the mill building was described as being out of repair, though the dam and other features were in ‘fair condition’ [NRO 404/ 238, 106]. A corn mill called ‘Fenwick’s Mill’, which is clearly on the same site as ‘Haggerston’s Mill’ is shown on a plan of Stella Freehold Estate in 1837 [DRO NCB 1/ SC/1000], and marked as ‘Corn Mill’ on another plan of that year [DRO D/X 35/16], and appears again on the 1838 Tithe map [ASC Tithe Winlaton] (Figure 19). The identification of ‘Fenwick’s Mill’ with the site marked as such on the 1st edition OS is again confirmed by an early 19th century section showing the heights of the mill dams and falls in water level along the Burn [ASC Z GBP/67]. By 1841 some confusion arises over the identity of Fenwick’s Mill. The Census returns for Winlaton Township that year give only two mills - a Flint Mill (which can be equated with the High Mill, Gazetteer 20), and ‘Fenwick’s or Haggerston’s Mill’ . Here there were two households: one was that of the miller, Robert Stokoe, aged 50, his wife Mary and their two children Jane, 15, and William, 10. The other family was that of an agricultural labourer, Joseph March, his wife Ann and four daughters aged from 1 month to 15 years [DRO M 27.4]. Ten years later, in 1851, and only ‘Fenwick Mill’ is listed. The miller was now Charles Robson, aged 62, a native of Glanton in Northumberland, with his wife Elizabeth, who was born in Kirkwhelpington. The Robsons had two sons, Joseph, 13, a coal miner, and Robert, 11, a labourer at the Brick Works, and two daughters, Jane and May aged 9 and 1 respectively [DRO M3/38]. Seventeen other households are listed under ‘Fenwick Mill’ in the census, but it seems unlikely that these were all actually living within the premises. In 1861, perhaps because of the influence of the 1858 Ordnance Survey in establishing placenames, only ‘Haggerstones Mill’ is listed in the Census [DRO M9/27]. Two households are again mentioned. One was that of Barbara Fenwick, a Spinster, aged 45, and the other Robert and Jane Wintrip, and their young sons William and Robert. Robert Wintrip senior is described as aged 27 and a Flint Miller [Census]. As there is no evidence that Haggerstone’s Mill was ever used for flint milling, it is possible that Robert Wintrip was actually working the High Mill/Dunn’s Mill. In 1871 ‘Haggerston’s Mill’ was occupied by a widow, Ann Bagnall, her sons Joseph, 26 and William, 24, both File Cutters, Richard, 22, Hardwareman, daughter Hannah Minto Bagnall, 14, her neice Thomason Gray and a ‘Servant and File-cutter’ William Watson. These Bagnalls appear to be related to the firm of R.S. Bagnall & Sons, in 1855-6 makers of chains, nails, spades, shovels and hinges, who als

Easting:
1714

Northing:
6292

Grid Reference:
NZ17146292

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 3422 >> 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map, c.1855, 6 inch scale, Durham, 2 Blaydon Burn, The Industrial Background