Location and general
description
Located in Hampton
Gay, Oxon., at SP485 166 (SP4816 at
www.geograph.org.uk).
The 1884, Ordnance Survey, 1:10,560 map shows a
substantial
building NNW of the Church and just upstream of the railway bridge on
the southern loop of the Cherwell (which is named Millstream). This was
LEE's reconstructed mill (see 'History' below).
In 1846, prior to LEE's reconstruction, Parker described the
mill as adjoining the manor house (Parker 1846, Pg 56). Suggesting that
the original mill was in the same spot.
A History of
the
County of Oxford notes that Davis'
map of 1797 marks
a 'Mill Lane' parallel with the northern loop of the
river Cherwell.
Buildings
Long since demolished. Foreman notes that there are some ruins and
waterways, some gear in headwater and part of a breastshot
metal wheel in its chamber. (Foreman, 1983, pg 109)
History (for period 1681- 1875)
Frances Wakeman has produced a
four page short history of this mill which I have yet to see. It
contains an appendix detailing parish register extracts - "Hampton
Gay Mill," The Quarterly, No. 64, October 2007, British Association of
Paper Historians.
The mill at Hampton Gay was leased in 1681 by John ALLEN for £9 per
annum, with the
stipulation that it was to be used solely for paper making. £10 was to
be paid for re-building or to supply rough timber of elm or ash to
equivalent value (LOBEL, 1959).
In 1684 one Michael HUTTON from Hampton Gay proposed paper making at
Deddington, Oxon, and soon after became paper maker there.
On
4 Sep 1733, Hannah the wife of John HUTTON, son of the above Michael
HUTTON, delivered their son John, at which time the records of
the
Friends Meeting in Banbury gives their abode as Hampton Gay
Paper
Mill. The same was true for the births of daughters Mary (30 Jun 1734)
and Hannah (28 May 1736)
On
4 Dec 1755, Thomas MILES of Hampton Gay, papermaker took as an
apprentice Robert TAYLOR, late of Bletchingdon an adjacent village, for
seven years.
(Oxford Records Office: PAR36/5/A4/7)
On 3 Apr 1756 one William FOSTER was apprenticed to Thomas
MILES,
papermaker of Hampton Gay, Oxon, from the parish of St Peter
Le Bayley,
Oxford.(Oxfordshire Poor Law Name Index, Par/214/5/A1/1/57)
On
26 Apr 1794 a lease for a year mentions the name TILSON in connection
with mills in Hampton Poyle and Hampton Gay (Oxford Local Studies
Catalogue entry for E31/36D/2)
Around
1805 a family by the name of HOWARD moved from the Wooburn area to be
papermakers at the mill (source: posting on Roots Web by Eve
McLaughlin,
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BUCKS/1999-01/0916848660,
accessed 16 May 2008)
1812
seems to
have seen continuous paper-making equipment
installed, the equipment having been manufactured by Fourdriniers of
London (Foreman, 1983, 71).
In 1846 the Manor was 'at present only partially occupied by the
superintendant of the adjoining paper-mill, belonging to C. Venables,
Esq.' (Parker, 1846, Pg 56)
The list of Bankrupts in The Jurist for Friday January 2 1851 includes
and entry for John DREW, as follows :
'John
Drew, Hampton Gay Mills, Hampton Gay, Oxfordshire, paper maker, Jan 27
at 1, Court of Bankruptcy, London, div.' (The Jurist, London:S Sweet,
Vol XV, part II, 1851, pg 475)
The 1854 Post Office Directory (pg 715) gives VENABLES, C as Paper
Manufacturers at Hampton Gay, Oxford
In 1863–73 the mill was reconstructed and James LEE, an iron-founder of the Oxford and Millbank Iron
Works, erected a gas-works and a
steam-engine and other machinery. (LOBEL, 1959)
In 1870 this mill was under the same management as
Adderbury
Grounds Papermill and both closed (Foreman, 1983, 72).
In 1875 the mill was destroyed by fire. (LOBEL, 1959)
In 1876
£610 was spent on re-roofing the building, the sheets, supplied by St. Vincent's Corrugated Iron Works of Bristol, came by canal (LOBEL, 1959)
By July 1880, the fittings included 'an
iron water-wheel, 2 iron pitwheels, 4 iron rag-washing and heating
engines, a
60-inch paper-making machine, a 30 h.p. Cornish
steam-boiler, a new 8 h.p. high-pressure steamengine, and various other
machinery '. This was said to be capable of an output of around one ton
of paper each day. (LOBEL, 1959)
In
April 1887, when the manor house was demolished by fire, it was jointly
owned by a farmer and Messrs J and B NEW, paper manufacturers.
The stock in trade of the mill, comprising 'about 15 tons of rags, waste paper, &c., 8 tons of
white and brown mineral alum, resin, face-blue, oil, a quantity of
paper bags, colouring, string, &c.'
was sold to pay the
rent. (LOBEL, 1959)
The mill was later demolished.
Bibliography
- LOBEL, Mary D. Editor, 'Parishes: Hampton Gay ', A History of the
County of Oxford: Volume 6 (1959), pp. 152-159. URL:
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63734. Date
accessed: 05 May 2008.
- FOREMAN, Wilfred, Oxfordshire Mills, Phillimore &
Co. Ltd, 1983
- PARKER, John Henry, A Guide to the Architectural
Antiquities in the
Neighbourhood of Oxford, The Oxford Society for Promoting the Study of
Gothic Architecture, Oxford, MDCCCXLVI (1846)
- WAKEMAN, Frances, The Deddington Paper Mill, The Newsletter
of the Deddington & District History Society, issue no 1,
October 1999, pg 4