Millennium Project
I do not know if the mortgagees sold the mill in April 1854 or not. If not, it is possible that there was an arrangement with John Hobday
There were reports of a fire in the drying sheds (now Nos 1 & 2 Papermill Cottages) reported in the Banbury Guardian. Certainly when we improved the two cottages several years ago there was evidence of severe burning on the inside stone walls when the old plasterwork was stripped off
I have not found a date when Zachariah bought the Papermill and buildings and surrounding land, but could he have bought it from the mortgagees?
Converting the mill to a Cornmill must have been a very expensive undertaking. The current stone and brickwork indicate a much smaller water wheel or turbine previously
The present water wheel is huge and double the size of the one at Barford St John which drove two sets of stone
This begs the following questions:
(i) Did Zachariah run out of money to buy the second set of stones?
(ii) Was there not enough water to power 2 sets of stones?
(iii) Was all the machinery second hand and therefore cheap to buy? (With the possible exception of the cone clutch sack lift mechanism which was new engineering)
We need Zachariah’s will to find out who he left the watermill, buildings and land to. I would guess that possibly he left it to Henry Edward Stilgoe who was the water engineer and latterly the chief engineer to the London Metropolitan Water Board.
I believe that on Hugh William Stilgoe’s death in 1949 that my father bought the farm from Christchurch and some land from New College about 4 years later