Restless miller: Scenes from rural life in bygone Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire

Full details

Authors & editors	Johnston, David [Author]
Publisher	Pomegranate Press
Year of publication	2010
Languages	English (main text)
Medium	Book
Edition	1
ISBN	9781907242038
Topics	People and communities > Biographies & tributes
Tags
Scope & content	This is the true story of William Chalcraft, a prosperous miller and farmer who fell to the level of a pauper and was buried in an unmarked grave. William moved from place to place with his family and was variously the miller at Hurst Mill at Harting, Chiddingfold smock mill, Barford Mill at Churt, Shellwood post mill at Leigh, a dairy farmer at Bedhampton where he may have been involved in smuggling wine and spirits with his brother-in-law using the local mill as a storehouse, and lastly as a dairy farmer at Headley. William's story and that of his family is told within a world of farmers, auctioneers, innkeepers, wine merchants and smugglers on the borderlands of Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire. Many of the recollections of his wife Sarah Jane Chalcraft nee Etherington were told to her granddaughter Nell Barclay. The book is well illustrated with images of people, mills, farms, towns and village scenes from Chiddingfold, Dunsfold, Harting, Petersfield, Bedhampton, Barford, Leigh, Oving and Chichester. Other names that feature significantly in the book: Etherington, Barclay, Coulthard, Purchase, Puttock and Russell.