Bowden Mill, High Wycombe

A water-powered corn mill and paper mill in the historic county of Buckinghamshire, England.

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At Domesday six mills were recorded in High Wycombe. In later times, further mill sites were developed. Overall, eleven mill sites are known, ten mills surviving into the 20th century or late nineteenth century. Bowden Mill always worked as two mills with two separate wheels. Both wheels were low breast shot, 9 or 10 feet diameter and of similar width. It appears that both paper milling and corn milling have been undertaken over time. John Scott was paper miller in 1791. Richard Barton was referred to as paper manufacturer and farmer in 1791, and corn miller in 1798 and again in 1823. In 1805 the two adjoining mills were burnt. Abraham Barton was miller in 1830. In 1853, James Edmond was corn miller and Alfred Lane was paper-making. James Edwin Saunders took over the mill in 1865 but, finding business hard, departed in 1873. By the 1930s one wheel had ceased working, but the mill was still operating using the second wheel.

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References

• Farley, Michael, County Museum Archaeological Group, "Buckinghamshire Watermills" (Records of Bucks, 24, 1982)
• Farley, Michael, Edward Legg and James Venn (Ed), The Watermills of Buckinghamshire: A 1930s account by Stanley Freese with original photographs (Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, 2007)

Related publications in the library

• Brief history of the Wye mills

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