The Old Steam Mill of Watnall

A friend from Watnall found this note in his mum's old records. It's about an old steam-powered mill behind the Queen's Head pub in Watnall which does not seem to appear in any previous records. I'm not sure if it is copied from an article elsewhere or just her own recollections. Doing some background checks on the note shows it does have some historical accuracy...

In 1851 Thomas Jackson was landlord of the Queen's Head and his family had blacksmith and wheelwright businesses in the area too. There is a Smithy next to the the pub on the old maps even up to the 1900s. 

There was a tenant of the New White Bull called James Jowitt in the 1860s and John Banner had a farm in Watnall Chaworth in 1824. In 1851 his son also had a farm in Watnall Cantelupe. John Banner's farm is not shown on a 1853 map so maybe that's when he moved to the mill? 

Also that is one hefty set of (presumably balancing) scales with a 14ft beam! The troy system for weights and measures is believed to have gotten its name from the French city of Troyes, a business hub in the Middle Ages that attracted merchants from around Europe and Britain. In Troyes, merchants measured 480 grains of barley to equal a troy ounce, and 12 troy ounces equalled one troy pound.

Queen's Head c.1900

Old Watnall Mill theory - this map from 1879-81 shows several buildings behind the Queen's Head (the "Inn") and "Smithy" that potentially could contain a steam-powered corn mill. Both were run by the Jackson family who are named as the steam-powered mill's first owners. A reliable water source would be needed as well as coal to power the steam engine and while there is a pond at the back of the neighbouring field, I wonder if this would have been sufficient? Coal supply would be no problem and steam tech was commonplace with all the mine pumping and winding engines in the area.

Update Oct 2024 - a 1920's framed poster done as a school project has come to light that has the same writing as the handwritten note. It is from the attic of the granddaughter of Kimberley school teacher Mr. John Hobbs. Note sure which came first, the note or the poster...

The bottom right corner of this 1920's school project
has almost the same text as the handwritten letter that this article is based on.
Courtesy of Carolynn Hobbs.

 

Nottingham has on record its first steam-powered mill exactly 223 years ago, invented in Arnold using the engine from a cloth mill to alleviate the difficult economic times. There were bread riots on the streets and looting of bakeries. The Nottingham Date Book of August 1800 recounts the story of the hard times, lack of wind or water power to grind the town's corn and the steam engine's ingenious and philanthropic re-purposing to save the day...

"August 1800 - Notwithstanding that Sunday was the last day of this month, it was marked as the commencement of a serious riot. A great increase in the prices of provisions, more especially of bread, had roused the vindictive spirit of the poorer classes to an almost ungovernable pitch. They began late in the evening, by breaking the windows of a baker in Millstone-lane, and in the morning proceeded, with an increase of numbers, and renewed impetuosity, to treat others of the same trade in the same unwelcome manner. Granaries were broken into at the canal wharfs, and it was really distressing to see with what famine-impelled eagerness many a mother bore away corn in her apron, to feed her offspring."

Contemporary small 
steam engine

"During the latter part of the summer, the Corporation opened a subscription to assist the poor in providing their families with bread, which received very considerable support from a number of wealthy and humane inhabitants; "but by none so much," records Blackner, "as by Messrs. Davison and Hawksley, of Arnold. They supplied an immense quantity of corn, considerably below the price they had given for it, for the use of their own workpeople. And what is very remarkable, when the corn was thus obtained to supply the poor with bread, which they could not otherwise obtain for money, there was neither wind nor water to grind it. These two worthy gentlemen remedied this misfortune, for they ground the corn in their own mill (which was turned by the machinery of their worsted mill), and sent the flour in their own waggons to Nottingham, free of all expense, which was sold at a reduced price by the Corporate servants, at the Malt Cross, to the eager multitude, and thus the horrors of a famine were expelled. These two gentlemen likewise took the batches of corn, of those who could raise them, from this town to Arnold, and ground them, and brought them back free of expense, so long as applicants could be found. For these benevolent and humane acts they received a tribute from thousands of hearts overflowing with the most grateful sensations; and Mr. Hawksley was presented with the freedom of the town; as was also Mr. Towle, of Broxtowe, who regularly brought corn to market, and sold it at a moderate price during this alarming period."

Large balancing scales as would be used in an old mill