Of Wind and Water: Mills in the greater Seale parish part 1 of 3

Figure 1. Author's cutaway sketch of a horizontal watermill of the 11th century showing how the quern stone was powered by the mill wheel and how the sluice-gate controlled water flow to the mill from a pool created by a dam.  The pool would also be a significant food source for fish and the fishing rights would have been strictly controlled by the landowner.  The drawing is based on the sketch from the Historic England booklet Mills: Introduction to Heritage Assets.

The existing remains of a post-medieval watermill in Netherseal on the known site of a late medieval mill has led researchers to conclude that every reference to a mill in the parish of Seale means that there has been a mill situated on the River Mease in Netherseal since the Domesday survey in 1086CE. A closer reading of those references leads to a more accurate conclusion: the site of the earliest watermill in the parish being located on what was then the Woulds, on Overseal’s eastern edge. A water mill requires a constant supply of running water that is reliable the year round. Early waterwheel design was relatively inefficient and required a reasonably strong current, which this has led researchers to assume that the parish mill is located on the River Mease, the site of the Netherseal mill but there are other clues as to the mill’s location.

The earliest written record available, the Domesday entry, itself explicitly states that the mill was not located in Netherseal at all. In fact, the Domesday entry is perfectly clear on this and lists a single mill for the parish; the entry for Overseal includes the mill and its value of five shillings and there are later documents supporting the fact that a mill and mill pool remained in the village into the twentieth century, although the mill itself fell in and out of use, sometimes for very long periods.

To the east of the village lies the Woulds, an area of land uncultivated until post 1800CE which has several streams draining it. The Hooborough Brook rises on the Woulds, in what is now Albert Village and for its entire 8.5 km length forms the county and parish boundaries between Leicestershire and Derbyshire, and between the villages that it passes by, before meeting the River Mease at Netherseal. Creating a dam here on the eastern edge of Overseal would have little effect on agriculture as the area is already marshy, the Woulds being used as the parish waste, for rough pasturing of cattle and other purposes. The Hooborough Brook flows constantly throughout the year but is not a mighty stream, so the creation of a mill pool to create a head of water to drive a mill wheel would be vital if it were to work, otherwise the mill would only be operable at certain times of the year. Barratt Pool was certainly large enough to create a head of water pressure to power a mill.

Building a dam creates a mill-pool that in turn gives a constant and reliable reservoir of water, with a strong head pressure for the mill, which again may be controlled to suit requirements. A mill pool is not a necessity when the water supply is consistent. River water levels and flow strength can be variable throughout the year, the River Mease is often in flood in the winter months, and the Hooborough Brook especially is variable in its flow depending on rainfall, so the creation of a mill pool, perhaps based on a naturally boggy area (there are many along the course of the brook) would create a reservoir of water and allow the flow to be controlled.

This confusion by researchers over the mill site and the assumption that it was the later Netherseal mill rather than the Overseal site has led to the conclusion that every reference in the early records is associated with the known mill at Netherseal, but reading the records themselves reveals a less clear picture; the scribe or document writer assumes that the location of a mill at Seale is apparent (which of course it was at the time of writing) and gives no direct information specifying exactly where the mill is located. The earliest reference after the 1087 Domesday entry is some eighty years later, in a charter dated circa 1167. The wording of the charter is not specific as to the site of the mill: “the sale by Ralph of Seale, to Ralph of Gresley, son of William, for 13 silver marks [£20 13s 4d], of his mill of Seale and 4 virgates of demesne land, to hold by service of one pair of leather greaves or two shillings yearly, on certain specified conditions”. This charter is unclear as to where exactly in Seale parish the mill is located, it could as easily be at the Barratt Mill site as the Netherseal site. In fact, the first reference that absolutely specifies that a mill was in use at Netherseal dates to 4th April 1317, a twenty-year lease by William Champeney of Netherseal to John of Normynton, miller, a plot of land in Nether Seal lying near Mill Lane. The rent fee is “a rose at midsummer, but after twenty years twenty shillings per annum”. If there was a Mill Lane, then the inference was that there was a mill nearby.

In 1343 Barratt Pool is mentioned in a charter whereby the Abbot of Merevale gave land at Shortheath and “all of the chenes (oaks) near the pool” to Edmund de Applebie. The pool is here described as a vivarium or “fishpond” although there is no mention of the mill itself. Clearly then the mill pool referred to was located in Shortheath in 1343 and the inference is that this is the same mill that passed into the ownership of the Appleby family by marriage in the thirteenth century. The reference is to the pool rather than to a mill is important and requires examination.

These charters suggest that something of significance had occurred to make Barratt Mill redundant, and a review of historical events reveals that the dates match closely with developments in mill technology introduced from the continent. Early mills had horizontal wheels and although used widely, were relatively inefficient. The wheel lay in the horizontal plane in the water, which flowed over paddles attached to the upright axle and as the wheel turned, the lower quern stone was powered, turning at the speed of the water wheel. The upper quern stone was fixed (it did not rotate) but could be raised to add the grain and then lowered to perform the task of grinding the grain to flour, with the weight of the upper, stationary, quern stone pressing down on the lower rotating quern stone providing the pressure to grind the grain to flour.

The water supply was controlled by means of a sluice-gate, opening the gate allowed water to flow at a manageable rate along the mill race, turning the wheel and consequently powering the lower quern stone. Closing the sluice gate stopped the flow and the water wheel stopped turning. Excess water from the pool flowed over a low point constructed in the dam wall, or through additional sluice gates, meaning that winter floods did not affect the mill pool adversely and that the Hooborough Brook continued to flow.

By the Middle Ages, engineering design and the use of simple gears meant that a more efficient vertical wheel could be utilised. The early wheels were of the undershot type, with a later development still of the overshot wheel meaning that efficiency was again increased. That the mill at Netherseal is not mentioned in the records until 1317, and that the mill at Overseal is referred to as a pool rather than a mill by 1343 suggests at least the possibility that high medieval technology had been introduced and a new mill had been constructed, perhaps around or soon after 1300, making the Netherseal mill site a 14th century one. This ties all the references neatly together with the known introduction dates of new technology to England. The problem of flooding was at least partially negated by introducing a mill-race to power the Netherseal mill, which could be controlled by sluice-gates.

The real clue to the siting of the mill is in both the landscape and the name. The landscape holds the shape of the remnant of the dam and causeway to the south and east of site of the pool, still visible despite recent woodland plantation. The name carries the meaning, now corrupted, of the dam. Barratt Pool (or occasionally Barrett’s Pool, with a variety of spellings) is the colloquial name, and it is often surmised that this comes from the family name Barratt or Barrett. However, this is a case of transformation known as popular etymology, the process of substituting for a term that is no longer current one that is more familiar or more appropriate. At one point in the early twentieth century the name was misconstrued as “Barrack Pool” on a village postcard. Barratt Mill was never populated by a family called Barratt, nor was it the site of a barracks; the name comes from the Middle English word barrass or barress for flood defence work or barrier, a word with a similar derivation. The earthworks are currently still visible in the landscape at the site of Barratt Pool.