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Club mill.Hillfoot bridge.


jee

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from David Crossley's Water Power on Sheffield Rivers:

Originally known as Old Park Corn Mill, existed pre 1709 when it was listed in a Bamforth marriage settlement. Remained proprty of the Bamforths until at least 1881.  Thomas Swindon was tenant in 1735 and 1739, taking a 21 year lease in 1739. George Clark was miller in the 1770's and he and Joseph Hancock (tenant of neighbouring rolling mill) enlarged the  head-goit in 1775, Clark appears in surveys of 1777 and 1788, in the Brightside Rate Books and in the 1794 printed list.  From 1795 the corn mill was in the hands of a friendly society hence the name change to Club Mill.  In 1801 the rates were paid by "proprietors of the Club Mill".  In 1807 the lease was assigned to 32 named individuals headed by Jeremiah Mate, miller, but included others such as cutlers, griners, button makers etc. The Iris had advertisments for letting the mill "by ticket" in 1811 and 1813. The 1814-15 Directory shows the  mill in the hands of "Club Societies", but individual tenants appear in subsequent Rate Books, the change taking place after 1817 when the Iris reported "a newly erected water-corn-mill and shelling mill called Old Park Mill", Mr Bellamy as tenant.  John Oliver became tenant about 1825 and is named in Rate Books until about 1850, by then having a engine house entered with the mill. After this the tenancies change, to Haden and Woodcock by 1860, Cocker and Woodcock by 1871, and Wilson Peace's executors in 1881.  During this period Lady Burgoyne was the owner. The 1895 wheel listshows that it was burnt down in 1887.  The 1893 OS map shows the building with no name, in 1905 and 1907 it was still named as Old Park Corn Mill, but the 1923 map identifies the site as Old Park Forge.

The mill and weir as surveyed in 1850:

1723084160_ClubMill1850.png.38210ad579f83666cb8558f21ec8b4f8.png

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Many thanks Edmund. You have provided a wealth of information. A further question concerns the weir. At the lower end the weir is topped with timber, presumably to protect the stones from wear which suggests that part of the operation was carried out on the weir. I don't know of any other weir that has timber as part of the construction, I'm very ignorant of weir construction so that any information given will be very welcome. 

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As you can see from the map, the weir ensures a head of water that is used to provide a flow down the head-goit to the mill, which is a few hundred yards downstream. The weir height has an effect on the eficiency of the mill operation, but no actual milling activity takes place near the weir.  It is possible that the timber was placed to fine tune the height of the weir when the mill operation was changed, perhaps to allow for additional water to be taken to supply steam boilers.  However timber rots, so the installation may have been a more recent addition?

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Again thanks for your reply. I do agree that the timber is of a more recent usage ( relatively) ,timber has a life of 50 years or so generally speaking. I'll go and have closer look before we have rain.

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