A recent provocative paper entitled “Why are so few Domesday mills recorded in Devon and Cornwall? A new Thesis” suggests that the Survey did not pay sufficient attention to tide mills.The omission is particularly obvious in Devon and Cornwall but raises the issue that tide mills tended to ignored elsewhere in the country. Do you agree?
The full paper is here. Simon Keith (the author) concludes:
“tide-mills probably existed in Devon and Cornwall in 1086 but the Domesday survey did not record their existence. The evidence for this is that i) tide mill technology was understood and available in the British Isles for many centuries before the Domesday Survey, ii) we know of the existence of at least 32 tide-mills in the estuaries of the West country with the earliest dated in the 13th century which indicates the suitability of both counties for the construction of tide-mills, and iii) the marked absence of recorded Domesday mills corresponds closely with those locations where later there were known to be tide-mills. Such a conclusion could explain why there are only 6 mills in five vills recorded in the Cornish Domesday survey and why there are fewer mills than might be expected in Devon.
It is also more cautiously suggested that tide-mills were not recorded anywhere in England in the whole Domesday Survey.
Although the above facts do not conclusively prove the thesis, it is suggested that to date there has been no other better explanation put forward. Further work is required to verify or disprove the proposition. The author of this paper does not have an intimate acquaintance with the history and landscape of the West Country and the work would benefit from an examination by those who have such knowledge.”
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