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Summary

Originally a corn mill, Sidford Mill became a combined corn and saw mill in the very late 19th-early 20th century. It subsequently became a laundry which closed in the 1930s.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses

• Old DCC SMR Ref: SY19SW/60
• Royal Albert Memorial Museum Accession Number: 147/2008

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• WATERMILL (XVIII to XIX - 1701 AD (Between) to 1900 AD (Between))

Full description

South West Heritage Trust, 1838-1848, Digitised Tithe Maps and Transcribed Apportionments (Cartographic). SDV359954.

Recorded as Mill and Stream on the Sidbury Tithe Apportionment (Plot 1269), occupied by William Dare.

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

Marked as Old Mill (Corn).

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

Marked as Grist & Saw Mills.

Ordnance Survey, 1930 - 1939, Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV336668.

Marked as Laundry. Comparison with the 1880s-90s and 1904-1906 maps shows the number of buildings on the site to have increased.

Ordnance Survey, 1963-1996, 1963-1996 National Grid OS Metric (Cartographic). SDV350058.

Marked as Laundry.

Phillips, M. C. + Wilson, R. E., 1978 - 1981, Water Mills in East Devon, 78 (Article in Serial). SDV102852.

Sidford Mill, Sidbury is a former water-powered corn and saw mill. The mill building has been incorporated in the laundry now on the site. The miller's house is a substantial brick and slate building. The mill machinery has all gone, including the overshot wheel. Water was supplied by a leat from a weir on the River Sid 550m to the north and from the brook rising on Sincombe Hills. The origins of the mill are unknown but there are documentary references to it from 1792 to 1919 when it became a laundry. An 1889 plan shows Floud's flour mill - 70ft from the river. In 1910 it was a saw mill.

Vanstone, A. C. + Dale, W. F., 1986, Mill (Worksheet). SDV117139.

The old laundry is now a store for all kinds of things. Externally it hasn't changed since the 1920's. It is situated in the grounds of Bourne Cottage near to the River Sid. It ceased to be a laundry during the early 1930's. It was a hand laundry, although later a few machines were used worked by steam power. There is a detached boiler house. The laundry employed some 20 women. It was owned by a Mr Senior who lived in the cottage adjacent to the laundry which is now Bourne Cottage (then called Rock Cottage?). When the laundry closed Mr Senior and family lived in Western Australia.

Exeter Archaeology, 1997, Archaeological Assessment of the Sidmouth Sewage Transfer and Treatment Evaluation, 5 (Report - Assessment). SDV348742.

Bodman, M., 1998, Water-Powered Sites in Devon, 26.3 (Report - non-specific). SDV305931.

Bell, J. + West, A., 2009, Archaeological Monitoring at the Former Victorian Laundry Site, Church Street, Sidmouth (Report - Watching Brief). SDV344550.

No features, deposits or dating evidence were found to indicate archaeological activity within the area of the development to the south of the Old Mill.

Bodman, M., 2016, Water Mills and other Water-powered Sites in Devon. Revised edition, 319 (Report - non-specific). SDV359634.

Described in a Sun Fire Insurance Policy of 1766 as having two pairs of stones and one waterwheel. It is similarly described in an auction notice of 1848. Both also mention the dwelling house (the mill house being the mill building).
William Reed is recorded as corn miller in White's Directory for 1850 and George Hawkings as miller in Kellys Directory of 1902.
Site visit 2005: The mill site is covered by industrial buildings. The mill house behind looks modern.

Ordnance Survey, 2023, Mastermap 2023 (Cartographic). SDV365227.

The Mill House is marked. The mill building is shown but not named.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4669 - Archaeological Monitoring at the Former Victorian Laundry Site, Church Street, Sidmouth

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