Watermill, Medmenham

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

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The mill building consists of two wings built of red brick over two storeys. One wing contained a mill cottage, the other the machinery. Some time about 1900 the mill was cleared of machinery and a pump was installed to supply water to the nearby Abbey. It is located on a small stream known as Medmenham Stream or Bullbank’s Ditch which feeds into the Thames. The mill was formerly known as Fulling Mill. There is no reference in Domesday to a mill, but in the reign of King Stephen (1135 – 1154) a grant to Woburn Abbey includes Medmenham Mill. In 1326 there was a reference to a fulling mill. Former millers include Jasper Jones (1702), Robert Grey (1749 and 1757) and William Fisher (1798). Several generations of the Lowe family were associated with the mill during the 19th century. A breast wheel with a 5ft fall once drove two pairs of stones. In 1973 a turbine and Blackstone-type diesel were still in place in the pump house, but the building had suffered vandalism, whilst the mill house had been converted for domestic use.

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References

• Anthony Bryan, Mills Research Group Database
• 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)
• Major, J K, SPAB Mills Section Record Card (1973)

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