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Rushdale Cottage, Meersbrook.


duckweed

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I have seen a drawing of Rushdale cottage but no photo. Does anyone know if there was one? I can see it on the 1894 map, just off Rushdale Road and at the bottom of Huckerback footpath (otherwise known as Breakback path). I have found from looking at older maps including Fairbanks that this cottage was or was on the site of Blythe's Mill.

Blythe's Mill is very mysterious. The Blythes owned land the Heeley side of it and sold it to Burnell in 1700s sometime. The last reference to the mill I can find is 1740 in parish records which says a Joseph Unwin son of John Unwin of Blythe Mill died.

In 1555 there is a reference to Thomas Blythe having rented the land from the Capital Burghess on the Heeley side of the Mill. The first direct reference I can find is in 1631 in the will of William Blythe of Norton Lees who mentions tools and goods in his mill. Mentioned in the inventory are a pair of millstones with Rinde and spindles, a molter ark? a trough, a hopp, a case, all other wooden things, a gavelock, a hatchet, with certain picks, and other iron things, a mett.

If anyone can make sense of these items I would be greatful. Could it be a mill for grinding scythes. There was definitely a smithy nearby.

Anybody got information on Rushdale cottages? Such as when did they knock it down?

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I thought the mill was about where Rushdale Terrace is now. It lines up with the course of what's left of the breakback in an almost straight line. It must have been an undershot wheel? A pair of millstones would suggest a corn mill, maybe it was used for other things later.

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May be a red herring, but an ark was a wooden chest or bin for dry stores. Could molter be mouter or multure? These were a toll consisting of a proportion of the grain carried or flour made, to the proprietor or tenant of a mill for the privilege of having corn ground at his mill. Each mill had its own scale of charges. So a mouter ark would be the place it was stored?

Hopp - again, may not help, but a hopper was a basket fro carrying seed, and a hopper free was a tenant who had the privilege of having their corn ground at the mill free of charge.

A gavelock was an iron crowbar or lever.

A met(t) was a measure, e.g. a mett poak was a two-bushel sack.

As oldbloke said, together with a pair of millstones, it sounds rather like a corn mill?

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I thought Rushdale Terrace but when I lined up the loops in the Meersbrook it seemed to be in line with Rushdale cottage. and nearer Kent Road. I know Kent Road was altered when they culverted the Meersbrook.

It was said to be a corn mill in some mill books but where they got that from I don't know. Nor do I understand why they would have a cornmill given that they rented Heeley cornmill as well.

As farmers they didn't grow much grain, just peas and oats and hay, They were diary farmers and ploughing the land round there was almost impossible for a great proportion of their farm.

The route of the Breakback or Huckerback path gets problematic once they started building Houses on the old farm lands. I need to get 2 maps the same scale and superimpose one on the other I think.

I know Whites lived in Bishops House at one point and farmed Rushdale so obviously not changed till the Estate was broken up when the Shores went bancrupt. Unfortunately the will of 1665 just says at the Mills and at the Wheels but no idea of place.

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Looking over some old maps yesterday I found a cottage on the assumed site of the old mill.It stood well back from the water and appeared to have a wall around it and quite a bit of land. It seems to have survived the building of houses on Rushdale Road, disappearing when Rushdale Terrace and Rushdale Avenue were built. It appears on maps until 1905/06, but I think it was probably demolished around 1900/1901.

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Its certainly not on the 1903 map I have. I have a 1894 map but someone copied it for me and it fades round about there.

I have an 1850s sale of Meersbrook Park map and key and it has an un named building there at the bottom of the East Meadow. In William Blythe's will he says the East Shireollers Meadow (which I take to mean the East meadow on the county boundary)

On Fairbanks map on the Heeley side of the Meersbrook and Blythe's Mill there is Spring Meadow, Ladies Spring Wood and then Spring Field going up to Heeley Green. I know Blythes had a house on this land which they sold to Henry Brownell not sure exactly when as it says Samuel Blythe but not sure if it was senior before his death in 1737 or Samuel junior who seems to have been selling family land in the 1750s.

Anyone know what the oldest map for the Norton area is and where I can get a copy of it? I would like a better copy of the 1894 from somewhere too.

I know there is an 1806 map (I started to copy it out just before the Archives closed) but the Archives seem to have no way of making a reasonable copy for me which is frustrating. I took photos but the map was in plastic and there was too much glare.

I am going to have to ask them if we can remove it from the protective sleeve so I can get a better photos if no one else knows of a copy.

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old-maps.co.uk have a few, 1877 seems to be the first that shows the Derbyshire side of the Meersbrook.

The 1894 Derbyshire map shows the planned layout of Brooklyn Road, the new extensions of Meersbrook Park Road and Valley Road and the beginning of Rushdale Road.

The 1894 Yorkshire map actually names Rushdale Cottage.

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Thanks You can't show me the four lane ends part too where Cross Scythes is? I have a description of wells and ponds in the area and the map numbers but no map of the area involving that area to Bishops House.

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Thanks You can't show me the four lane ends part too where Cross Scythes is? I have a description of wells and ponds in the area and the map numbers but no map of the area involving that area to Bishops House.

1877

1898

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Thanks it is definitely the 1877 map. I have got between 141 on one side and no 142 on the other side very deep well called draw well. Also Norton Lees Lane between 141 and 144 at east end of 142 there was a pond.

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Thanks it is definitely the 1877 map. I have got between 141 on one side and no 142 on the other side very deep well called draw well. Also Norton Lees Lane between 141 and 144 at east end of 142 there was a pond.

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