Walk Mill

[southside]

Hi, Can anyone help me please with the location of Walk Mill, The image is from the 1851 census

[syrup]

Hi, Can anyone help me please with the location of Walk Mill, The image is from the 1851 census

It looks to be the Abbeydale area.

Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries .

The Sheffield & Rotherham Independent. Supplement. (Sheffield, England), Saturday, February 27, 1864.

[Edmund]

According to Wikipedia Walk Mill was sold to the Midland Railway by the Duke of Devonshire in 1871 for the construction of Dore and Totley station, and the last mill buildings were taken down in 1890:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Sheaf

[Chris1943]

From Wikipedia

Walk mill was one of the earliest known mills on the Sheaf, having been built around 1280 by the Canons of Beauchief Abbey as a fulling mill. After the abbey was dissolved in the reign of Henry VIII, it was used as a cutlers wheel. By 1746 John Tyzack was using it for grinding scythes, in 1797 Thomas Biggin was making knives for cutting hay and straw, and it was being used as a sickle mill in 1805. After a brief spell as a paper mill around 1826, it was occupied by Thomas Tyzack and Sons, who made saws. The site was sold to the Midland Railway by the Duke of Devonshire in 1871 for the construction of Dore and Totley station, and the last mill buildings were taken down in 1890

[SteveHB]

http://www.tyzack.net/chap13.pdf

[RichardB]

Thought there was one at Twelve O'Clock ...

[SteveHB]

Thought there was one at Twelve O'Clock ...

Yes, there were others by the name.

[RichardB]

Joseph Ellis, Penknife manufacturer and white metal smith, Walk Mill, 12 O'Clock Baine's 1822

Ishmael Lant, Wood turner, stainer, French polisher and manufacturer of handles for edgetools, Walk Mill, 12 O'Clock; h. Spital Hill White's 1852

[RichardB]

Helps to read the image ...

Yes, there were others by the name.

[SteveHB]

How did they come by the name, walk mills ..

"From the medieval period,

the fulling of cloth often was undertaken in a Water mill, known as a fulling mill,

a walk mill, or a tuck mill"

.Fulling

[History dude]

The fulling mill was basically a water powered hammer! Wool is very greasy so they hammered it to get the grease out. So it was a noisy and a smelly operation. This didn't make them popular people, who ran it, and the surname Walker became linked to them.

[Edmund]

Here is an article by S.O.Addy which appeared in the Independent in 1877. He says that some of the mechanisms of the mill were still visible as at 1877, though this is debatable.

ANCIENT MILLS - FULLING MILL AT TOTLEY

Ralph de Ecclesall, amongst other gifts, gave to the Canons of Beauchief "a spot of ground near the river of Schefeld, for the erection of a fulling mill, with leave to turn the river if necessary ; he to have one·third of the profits, and to bear one-third of the expense." (Pegge, 150.) This, as nearly as I can ascertain, happened about AD 1300, rather before the time when Edward III invited over the skilled weavers from the Netherlands. (Fuller's Church History.) The woollen manufacture, nevertheless, was yearly becoming of greater importance, and the monks, ever amongst the foremost improvers of the mechanical arts, were always ready to embark in a remunerative business.

A fulllng mill, as everybody knows, is used in the woollen manufacture. At a certain stage of the process the cloth, folded into many plies, is put into the mill, where it is exposed to the Iong-continued action of two heavy wooden mallets or stocks, a thick solution of soap or fuller`s earth being spread between each layer of cloth. There may now be seen at Totley on the Sheaf a mill (formerly a paper mill) in which are two heavy oaken mallets, of very ancient appearance. I believe papermaking and cloth-making both require the process of fulling, and this may, therefore. be the very mill which Robert de Ecclesall gave to the canons.

There is a reason why a fulling mill would be useful to the canons, which is this. Their walking-habit was white, and was made probably of a somewhat heavy material. Now fullers not only scoured cloth which came from the loom, but also washed and cleansed garments which had been already worn. In the days of the Romans this was done by putting them into tubs or vats, where they were trodden upon and stamped by the feet of the fullers, whence Seneca speaks of “soltus fullonicus”, or the fuller’s dance (Dr.Wm. Smith. Dict. of Antiq.) What was done by the feet of the fullers would here be done by wooden mallets worked by water-power, and as soap was yet unknown, the improvement would be a very beneficial one. In St. Mark's account of the transfiguration of Our Lord we read "that his raiment became shining, exceedinig white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white them." [ix., 3.)

S. O. ADDY March 8th 1877

[southside]

Big thanks to you guys for all the info about Walk Mill!

I have located the Mill on an early Ordanance Survey,it looks to be just about opposite Dore & Totley Station.