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Dark Mill

The highest mill on the Frome in Stroud parish, Dark Mill, was included in the property comprising a house called the Bourne, 2 fulling-mills, and 2 grist-mills which Sir Henry Poole of Sapperton leased to John SEWELL in 1597. Sir Henry's son Henry sold it in 1622 to Roger FOWLER, clothier, who sold it in 1626 to Robert Ducie, alderman of London. Ducie sold it to Thomas DAVIES, clothier, in 1629, and in 1671, by which time a gig-mill had been added, it belonged to Thomas DAVIES, grandson of Thomas DAVIES. In 1701 the younger Thomas settled the mill on his daughter Rebecca and her husband John STEPHENS (d. 1704). Subsequently it was divided between Stephens's two daughters. One moiety passed to Anne who married c. 1719 Thomas RIDLER of Edgeworth, passing in 1751 to their daughter Elizabeth and her husband William PRINN. The other moiety passed to John Stephens's daughter Sarah who married Henry WINDOWE of Churchdown (d. 1745), and, put up for sale under a Chancery order secured by Henry's creditors, was bought in 1752 by William PRINN who thus reunited the two moieties. In 1756 PRINN sold the mill to Peter LEVERSAGE, then or later owner of the Middle Lypiatt estate, and James CANTER, a maltster of Minchinhampton. Leversage bought out Canter in 1761, and in 1784 settled the property, which was then in four occupations and included a fulling-mill, grist-mill, shear-grinder's mill, and dye-house, on the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth and John GEORGE. The shear-grinder's mill, and presumably also the fulling-mill and dye-house, was on the site of Dark Mill, but the grist-mill stood just to the north on the Toadsmoor brook. Dark Mill remained in the possession of the GEORGE family of Cherington until 1872 when it was bought by William FARRAR. Amos JONES was tenant of the mill for some years until 1823; in 1842 it was occupied by Richard JONES, and in 1845 and 1860 by John WEBB. At the last date Dark Mill was still described as a cloth-mill, but later it had a variety of uses, being a gun-felt manufactory in 1870, a dye-works in 1876, a saw-mill in 1881, and in 1885 and for some years afterwards a manufactory of umbrella-sticks. In 1903 it was acquired by Critchley Bros., pin-makers at nearby Wimberley Mill, who used it for the manufacture of wooden knitting-needles and crochet-hooks. The firm still occupied the site in 1971. New factory buildings were put up in the 1950s and 1960s, and the early-19th-century stone mill was demolished in 1964.  

Bourne Mill / Grime's Mill

Bourne Mill, the next downstream, was called Grime's Mill in 1777 and may have been the mill below Bourne bridge that John GRIME held in 1608. Thomas FREAME, heir to Nether Lypiatt manor, leased a mill at Bourne to William GRIME in 1654, and Thomas's daughter Sarah WINDOWE renewed the lease to William, his wife Joan, and son Jeremy in 1690 when the site comprised a house, 2 fulling-mills, and a rack-place. Bourne Mill was owned by Richard MILLS, a rug-maker (d. by 1783), and was acquired after his death by Richard HARRIS (d. 1833). Harris's trustees sold the mill soon after 1836 to Nathaniel Samuel MARLING,  who bought many mills in the Stroud region at that period, some to work himself but others apparently as a speculation. The lessee in the early 1820s was the cloth manufacturer Thomas HILL, but the mill evidently then also included a corn-mill, being described in 1822 as a mill with 2 wheels, 3 pairs of stones, and a gig. Marling's lessee in 1842 was the clothier John WEBB,  who renewed his lease in 1855.  By the mid 1860s Bourne Mill was occupied by Richard Grist & Co., mattress-wool, mill-puff and shoddy makers,  but they had evidently left it by 1901 when it was a cabinet-works.  H. S. Hack Ltd., makers of umbrella- and walking-sticks, occupied Bourne Mill from 1912 until the 1960s,  and in 1971 the mill, comprising two stone buildings of the early 19th century,  was occupied by small businesses engaged in screen printing, metal polishing, and the manufacture of flexible moulds.

Port Mill

Port Mill, named from the canal basin built immediately east of it in the 1780s, was apparently the mill at Brimscombe held by Samuel PEACH of St. Mary's Mill in 1744. It later passed to John PEACH who sold it to the Thames and Severn Canal Co. in 1786;  in 1804 it was a grist-mill, leased to John JENKINS. The company sold it, comprising a newly-erected house and a corn-mill, to Mary LEWIS of Brimscombe Mill in 1815, and her son William was leasing it in 1839 to John GEORGE,  a prominent barge-owner on the canal.  It was put up for sale with William Lewis's property in 1843. Later it passed to N. S. MARLING who leased it to P. C. EVANS until 1855 when it was taken on lease with Bourne Mill by John WEBB.  In 1863 James FERRABEE moved to Port Mill from the Phoenix ironworks at Thrupp and in 1870 he was manufacturing cloth there in partnership with a Mr. FOX.  Port Mill was again worked with Brimscombe Mill after 1872 when it was acquired by P. C. Evans & Sons. From 1949 the mill, comprising buildings of the later 19th century, was occupied by Bensons International Systems Ltd., makers of loose-leaf ledger equipment, who were employing 200 people by 1962. In 1970 Bensons built a large new factory near by on the north side of the former canal basin. 

Brimscombe Mill

Brimscombe Mill, the next below,  was apparently represented by the house and mills in Stroud and Bisley with which Thomas BIGGE and Ursula his wife were dealing in 1594,  and was evidently the mill below Brimscombe bridge which Richard FOWLER occupied in 1608. In the latter year both Richard and Roger FOWLER were recorded as clothiers in Nether Lypiatt,  and by his will dated 1626 Roger FOWLER left a house, two fulling-mills, a grain-mill, and a gig-mill there to his father Richard Fowler (d. 1627), described as of Bigge's Place. Richard was succeeded by another son Henry FOWLER, rector of Minchinhampton (d. 1643), and Henry's son Henry sold Bigge's Place and the mill to William WEBB, clothier, in 1648. By 1675 William's son, William, had succeeded him, and William WEBB of Woodchester sold the mill in 1705 to Brice SEED of Rodborough. Seed sold it in 1733 to the clothier John DALLAWAY, who worked it until 1760 when he made it over to his son William; the property then included two houses, fulling-mills with 3 stocks, a gig-mill, a knapping-mill house, racks, and a blue dye-house.  William, who was high sheriff of the county in 1766, was succeeded at his death in 1776  by his son William, whose debts forced him to sell the property in 1790 to Joseph LEWIS; the mill, which included a scarlet dye-house, was then in the tenure of Messrs. BLACKWELL and REMINGTON.  Joseph LEWIS (d. c. 1808) left Brimscombe Mill to his wife Mary to be divided after her death among their four children John, William, George, and Elizabeth; in 1809 Elizabeth sold her quarter share in the reversion but it was later bought back by Mary and her three sons.  The LEWIS brothers were known for their improvements in cloth-making machinery, notably the rotary shearing-machine which John patented in 1815,  although credit for the invention was also claimed by Stephen PRICE, a Stroud engineer.  The three brothers carried on cloth-making and dyeing at Brimscombe Mill until 1827 when George sold out to the other two, who continued in partnership until John's death in 1838. Steam-engines had been installed at the mill by 1833, and in 1838 William had a power-loom and 60 handlooms there, although 29 of the handlooms were unemployed. On William's death in 1843 his creditors secured a court order for the sale of the property to meet their claims; it then included two mills called Upper and Lower Mills.

By 1845 Brimscombe Mills had been acquired by Samuel MARLING who leased them in that year to the WHITE family, clothiers of Monk's Mill, Wotton under Edge. In 1858 he leased them to the firm of P. C. Evans and J. W. Bishop, later P. C. Evans & Sons, which, becoming by amalgamation in 1920 part of Marling & Evans, continued to manufacture cloth there until the early 1930s. By 1931 one section of Brimscombe Lower Mill was occupied by a firm making automobile engine parts, and by 1935 another section by J. Cousins, iron-founders. From 1946 Lower Mill was occupied by Kimberley & Hogg, electro-platers and metal-polishers, and Lewis & Hole, who made castings for the engineering trade, and in 1971 Kimberley & Hogg shared the site with a firm of welders and a firm of vehicle-body repairers. Upper Mill was occupied by a firm making knitting-needles in 1936;  in 1967 the Perolin Co. Ltd. and a subsidiary moved to the site from Warwick, and in 1971 the two companies, which manufactured a wide range of chemicals for use in industry, employed c. 30 people. The surviving buildings on the site of the two mills were then mainly brick structures of the 19th century. The buildings demolished included the house called Bigge's Place, which was described as an ancient house in the 1770s and stood east of the site close to Brimscombe bridge.

Thrupp Mill / Huckvale's or Huckfield's Court

A mill at Far Thrupp, known in the early 19th century as Thrupp Mill but before that usually called Huckvale's (or Huckfield's) Court, may have been in existence by 1381 when John HUCKVALE (Hokkevale), a tucker, was living in Nether Lypiatt. Richard SEWELL occupied the mill in 1608,  and he or another Richard owned Huckvale's Court at his death in 1635 when it comprised a messuage, two fulling-mills, a gig-mill, and a gristmill, held freely from Nether Lypiatt manor. Richard was succeeded by his son Giles, and in 1677 the property belonged to another Richard SEWELL, whose widow Ursula and her second husband Joseph GOUGH, clothier, owned it in 1705. In 1708 Joseph and Ursula and the heirs of her first husband conveyed the mill to Jeremiah DAVIS and Richard BAKER, and by 1752, called Sewell's Mill, it had passed to Jeremiah's son Dennis who was leasing it to Jonathan WATHEN, clothier. By 1770 it had passed to Joseph WATHEN of New House, who was described at his death in 1786 as one of the most considerable clothiers in the county. Joseph's widow Anne owned the property in 1792 and settled it on the marriage of her son Samuel WATHEN. Anne died in 1803 and Samuel in 1818,  and in 1828 Elizabeth, Samuel's widow, leased Thrupp Mill to John FERRABEE, iron-founder, who was empowered to make extensive alterations which included taking down the dwelling-house, removing two of the three water-wheels and their stocks, and building a foundry. The mill thus became the Phoenix ironworks where John FERRABEE, from 1851 his sons James and Henry, and from 1855 James alone, carried on the production of cloth-making machines, water-wheels, agricultural machinery, and steam-engines.The works also made the first lawn-mowers: that machine was invented in 1830 by a local mechanic Edwin BUDDING and its patenting and development financed by John FERRABEE. An adjustable spanner invented by Budding was also produced. After James FERRABEE's removal to Port Mill in 1863 the foundry business at the Phoenix works was carried on by George Wailes & Co. From 1872 BURTON, Sons, & WALLER, later George WALLER & Son, a firm of mechanical engineers, occupied the foundry using it to make castings for their main factory in London, and in 1887 the firm moved the whole of its plant to the Phoenix works. WALLER & Son, by then part of a larger combine, still occupied the works in 1971 when they were chiefly engaged in the production of compressed-air pumps for gas-works, sewage-works, and other undertakings; the works then employed c. 180 people. A water-wheel remained in use until the early 1920s, powering part of a machine-shop, and in 1971 the original foundry building of 1828 survived, although re-roofed, among more extensive modern buildings.

Ham Mill 

Ham Mill, the next downstream, was occupied in 1608 by Robert TAYLOE, and in 1634 Robert TAYLOE, clothier, and his son Thomas sold it to Samuel WEBB. Samuel received grants of protection against the plundering of his goods from Prince Maurice in 1642 and Prince Rupert in 1643. He was succeeded by his grandson Samuel who owned the mill in 1685; it then had two fullingstocks, a gig-mill, a grist-mill, dye-house, press house, and 5 racks, and the property also included a mansion called Doleman's Ham and a considerable estate. Samuel was succeeded, apparently before 1723, by his son Robert (d. 1735). Robert's widow Anne was entitled to dower in part of the property while the remainder passed to his aunt Susannah, who, however, granted her estate to Anne for life. On Susannah's death in 1737 her reversionary right passed to the daughters of William Webb, Mary who married Samuel ALDRIDGE and Jane who married Ralph LAMPTHORN, but in 1743 Samuel, Ralph, and Jane joined with Anne Webb in a release of Ham Mill to James WINCHCOMBE, mercer, reserving to Anne an annuity and the right to occupy the house for life. WINCHCOMBE was making cloth at the mill in 1764. By 1803 John KNOWLES and a partner were working it, and it was put up for sale in 1812 following KNOWLES's death. It was apparently bought by Sir Paul BAGHOTT of Lypiatt Park, and in 1822 it was owned by Obadiah WATHEN and occupied by Joseph WATHEN.

  
Shortly afterwards Ham Mill was acquired by William MARLING, founder of one of the most successful clothier families of the Stroud region. William took his son Thomas into partnership at Ham Mill in 1825, and in 1832 another son, Samuel Stephens MARLING, joined the firm. In 1833 the mill was powered by a steam-engine in addition to 3 water-wheels, and in 1838, when Thomas and Samuel were carrying on the business, it contained 45 power-looms and 29 handlooms. By 1842 Ham Mill belonged to Nathaniel Samuel MARLING, another of William's sons, but it was occupied by William STANTON of Stafford's Mill. It possibly became a saw-mill after 1846 when MARLING  leased it to Thomas BARRETT of Painswick, turner, but from 1852 the lessee was Thomas SAMPSON, a woollen shawl manufacturer, whose business was hit by a change in fashion in the late 1850s and complicated by the financial difficulties of his partner, William BARNARD of Lodgemore Mill. Alfred RITCHIE & Co. were making cloth at Ham Mill by 1863; they worked it until 1900 when they sold it to Thomas BOND WORTH & Sons, carpet weavers, who had 300 looms there and employed c. 700 hands in 1907. Apart from a few years after 1941 when the mill was put to wartime uses, BOND WORTH carried on carpet-weaving at Ham Mill until 1954, and from c. 1920 a factory north of Bowbridge, formerly the Eagle brewery, was used for spinning the yarn for the mill. In 1954 the Bowbridge factory was given up and from that date Ham Mill was used only for spinning for the firm's parent works in Stourport.  From 1906 until the Second World War a part of Ham Mill was occupied by firms of cloth-merchants. The buildings on the site, which in 1833 comprised the original mill building and three new blocks put up in 1814, 1825, and 1832 respectively, were severely damaged by fires in 1841 and 1866. 

Griffin's Mill

In 1971 some substantial early19th-century stone-built blocks survived together with later brick buildings.
Griffin's Mill was owned by a family of the name for over 180 years. John GRIFFIN bought the mill from Richard FOWLER in 1599, and at John's death in 1627 the property included a messuage, grain-mill, fulling-mill, and gig-mill. It passed to his son Thomas (d. 1638), and to Thomas's son John w John in 1655. John GRIFFIN owned the mill in 1708 and died c. 1719, and in 1720 his son John sold it, subject to an annuity, to his brother Thomas, described as a packer of London. By 1724 Thomas had been succeeded by his son William, who was living in London as a factor in 1728 and in 1740 sold Griffin's Mill to his brother Thomas (d. 1788). In 1790 Thomas's devisee sold the mill to William CLISSOLD of Ruscombe and Thomas WILSON of Painswick, and CLISSOLD, having acquired WILSON's right, sold the equity of redemption to the mortgagee William HAMILTON in 1793. By 1813 Thomas HOWELL owned Griffin's Mill, and he was making cloth there in 1820, but by 1838 the mill was being used as a saw-mill, which purpose it served in 1846 when occupied by Messrs. BARNARD. In 1856 part was being used as a saw-mill by William BARNARD, and part by Henry and Richard Hooper, whose family carried on the manufacture of umbrella-sticks there until at least 1935. From 1912 another part of Griffin's Mill was occupied by Tyler's Ltd., cabinet-makers, who remained there until 1956 or later. In 1971 the site, comprising three substantial 19th-century brick-built blocks, was occupied by nine small firms including engineers, electricians, paint-manufacturers, and suppliers of motor accessories.

Stafford's Mill

Stafford's Mill was presumably that occupied by Edmund WEBB in 1608, identified as the next below John Griffin's mill. It belonged to the later John GRIFFIN in 1708, having at some time been occupied by Richard STAFFORD. It descended with Griffin's Mill until 1793 when William HAMILTON sold it to William STANTON, clothier, the property then including a house, a fulling-mill with two stocks, and a gig-mill. William and his sons, William Henry and Charles, were working the mill in 1833 when steam-engines had been introduced, and in 1836 they installed 28 power-looms; in 1838 the mill also contained 88 handlooms, although not all the looms were then working. William died in 1841, devising the mill to William HENRY, who was M.P. for Stroud 1841-52 and died in 1870, Charles (d. 1863), and a third son John (d. 1847). In 1872 Alfred STANTON, second son of William Henry, was working the mill in partnership with his cousin Walter STANTON. The partnership between Alfred and Walter, who were both also M.P.s for Stroud, was dissolved in 1880, and Alfred alone carried on the business until c. 1886.  By 1889 Stafford's Mill was occupied by S. G. BAILEY & Co., paint and chemical manufacturers, who remained there until the 1960s when they moved to Griffin's Mill. In 1971 several businesses, including engineers and distributors of motor tyres and gas supplies, occupied the site, on which a number of stone mill buildings, apparently erected between 1825 and 1831,  still survived.

Bowbridge Mill

Bowbridge Mill, near the confluence of the Frome and the Lime brook, was later identified with the fulling-mill held from Over Lypiatt manor by William WORKMAN c. 1513. In 1606 the lord of the manor conveyed a property which included a watermill and 4 fulling-mills to Henry FLETCHER, who held Bowbridge Mill as a free tenement of the manor in 1612;  in 1608, however, it was occupied by Nathaniel WORKMAN and Richard FLETCHER. It was evidently worked by William FLETCHER, recorded as a clothier at Bowbridge in 1655, and in 1679 it was settled on the marriage of Thomas WEARY to Mary, daughter of Walter FLETCHER, late a merchant of London. Weary sold it in the following year to William ESSINGTON, clothier (d. 1719), and in 1724, known as Fletcher's or Bowbridge Mill, it belonged to William's son William (d. c. 1727). The younger William (ESSINGTON)was succeeded by his nephew Richard ESSINGTON who retained Bowbridge Mill in 1735 when it included a house, a corn-mill converted into a cottage, and a fulling-mill, apparently in the occupation of a tenant John GAINEY. By 1779 the mill belonged to the PARTRIDGE family who worked it mainly as a dye-works for over 100 years. In 1802 John PARTRIDGE sold the property, which then included three fulling-mills (one recently erected) and dyeing-vats, to his sons Thomas and Nathaniel, both dyers, and in 1806 Nathaniel sold his moiety to Thomas. In 1823 Nathaniel, described as a scarlet-dyer, and his brothers Joseph and John, blue-dyers, made an agreement for sharing the power in the mill. In 1833, when John was making broad superfine cloth, kerseymeres, and Spanish stripes, and also carrying on an extensive dyeing business, he estimated that he gave employment to 500 people; steam-power was by then in use to drive some of the fulling-stocks. In 1842 part of the site was owned and occupied by Joseph PARTRIDGE, and Nathaniel PARTRIDGE had dye-houses near by, and PARTIRDGE & Co. were still dyers at Bowbridge in 1889. By 1894 and until at least 1927 the dye-works there were operated by Strachan & Co. in conjunction with their cloth-factories at Lodgemore and Fromehall mills. Another part of the site was probably occupied by W. C. CHAMBERS of Thrupp House who was recorded as a dyer at Bowbridge between 1870 and 1927. In 1833 there were four mill buildings on the site, an old mill altered in 1824, and three others, built c. 1780, c. 1795, and in 1802 respectively. In 1971 a pair of two-storey stone-built blocks, used for storage by a building contractor, survived on the south side of the lane leading from the London road into Rodborough.

Arundell's Mill

Arundell's Mill was evidently that comprising two fulling-mills and a corn-mill in Stroud and Over Lypiatt which John HUCKVALE granted c. 1585 to Richard ARUNDELL. It had possibly been in existence by 1381 when William HUCKVALE (Hokkevale) was a tucker in Over Lypiatt tithing. Richard ARUNDELL died c. 1601 leaving his freehold land to his eldest son Richard, and in 1653 his grandson John ARUNDELL made a 200-year lease of a house called Huckvale's Place with two fulling-mills, a gig-mill, a corn-mill, and a dye-house to William BOOTH; the property was presumably a free tenancy of Over Lypiatt, for the lease was recorded among the evidences of that manor. It may have been part of the estate in Over Lypiatt in which Thomas ARUNDELL had succeeded John ARUNDELL the elder and younger by 1724. In 1749, with the house called the Field and over 100 a. land, Arundell's Mill was settled on the marriage of Freame ARUNDELL (d. 1785), and it passed in turn to his sons Thomas (d. 1788) and James (d. 1813). James's heirs were Elizabeth GREGORY and her daughter Elizabeth who married the Revd. John HAWKINS in 1815. The elder Elizabeth devised her moiety of the estate to Hawkins on her death in 1860, and he sold the mill in 1868 to Edwin GYDE,  who sold it shortly afterwards to John WOOLWRIGHT. The lessee of Arundell's Mill in 1820 was John GORDON, and in 1838 R. P. SMITH & Co., who were using four power-looms installed the previous year. In 1842 the mill was occupied by Christopher SMITH and Charles GYDE, and in 1856 by Charles GYDE & Son, dyers; dyeing continued there in the name of GYDE & Co., and later GYDE, BISHOP, & Co., until the early 1930s. The main mill buildings had all been demolished by 1971 and the site was a coal yard but the pond and sluice remained and some stone buildings west of the main site, one in part 17th century.

Capel's Mill

Capel's Mill was also owned at one time by the ARUNDELLs, but it took its name from a family which held it later for over 150 years. It was recorded c. 1513 as the fulling-mill which a man called ORPIN held from Over Lypiatt manor, and Thomas ORPIN of Stroud, tucker, who was recorded in 1535, may have worked it. In 1558 John ORPIN held a house and fulling-mill from Over Lypiatt manor by a copy of 1489, but by 1581 Richard ARUNDELL was the tenant and it was presumably Richard's 'lower mill' which his second son John was to occupy after his death c. 1601. In 1608 the lord of Over Lypiatt sold the mill, then known as Orpin's Mill, to Richard's eldest son Richard, and in 1654 John ARUNDELL sold it to Richard VINER. Robert VINER, recorded as a clothier in 1662, may have worked it. Before 1720 the VINERs sold the mill to Samuel CAPEL, and Samuel's son, who had succeeded him by 1723, was probably the William CAPEL, clothier, mentioned in 1728. The same or another William was apparently working the mill in 1774. John CAPEL (d. 1828) was making cloth there in 1820, and his son Arthur remained owner of it c. 1870. The Capels ceased to work it before 1838 when Daniel BOWERBANK was the tenant, and in 1856 it was occupied by Mrs. Elizabeth GRIST, Sons, & Co., prepared wool, mattress, and mill-puff manufacturers; GRIST & Co. later carried on the same business at Gussage and Lewiston mills, but had evidently left Capel's Mill by 1882 when it was a dye-works. By 1971 the site had been cleared. The CAPELs lived in a substantial classical-style house built east of the site in the mid 18th century. It was of brick with stone dressings and its name, the Brick House, reflected the rarity of the former building material in the area at that period. It was demolished in 1964.

Ruscombe Mill

On the Ruscombe or Ozel brook in the west part of Paganhill tithing there were at least five mills, the lowest of which, situated south of the Cainscross- Stroud road, was mentioned in an earlier volume under Stonehouse. Ruscombe Mill, the highest, was probably in existence by 1439 when Richard atte MILL held lands, which later formed part of the Ruscombe Farm estate, by gift of Thomas GUYSSHE. In 1532 William PAWNE leased Ruscombe Mill with Ruscombe Farm to Richard GARDNER, and it was included in the sale of the estate in 1574. In 1648 Giles GARDNER, owner of Ruscombe Farm, leased the mill to Daniel GARDNER, clothier, and the lease was renewed to Daniel's son Giles, also a clothier, in 1677. The mill was later occupied by another Daniel GARDNER, clothier, who was declared bankrupt in 1728. In spite of the trade of the lessees the mill remained a corn-mill in 1677 and probably in 1728, for one of Daniel GARDNER's debts was owed to a Painswick clothier for the use of his fulling-mill. Ruscombe Mill has not been found recorded later, and if, as seems most likely, it stood at the pond east of Ruscombe Farm, it had been demolished by 1819.

Puckshole Mill

Puckshole Mill, at the point where the Randwick- Paganhill road crosses the Ruscombe brook, was owned and occupied by Thomas ELLERY in 1822 when it contained one stock, one gig, and other machinery. Before 1870 it belonged to Richard BARTON, and the firm of HARMAN & ADEY were making cloth there in 1871 when they went bankrupt. In the late 19th century, known as Vale Mill, it was worked as a corn-mill. It had ceased working by 1936, by which date the mill building, which adjoined the south-west corner of the surviving house, had been demolished. The house is a mid-18th-century building of stone with a brick front. A long row of 17th- or early-18th-century stone cottages on the west side of the old mill-pond may have once housed employees.

Ozelbrook Mill

Ozelbrook Mill, just to the west of the Cainscross- Paganhill road, has not been found recorded before 1819 when it was described as Mr. CLUTTERBUCK's mill and was presumably occupied by William CLUTTERBUCK of 'Wooslow's Brook', shear-grinder, who was mentioned in 1817 and 1844. No later record of the mill has been found and by 1882 it had apparently been incorporated in the brewery established near by.

Stratford Mill

There were four mills on the Painswick stream where it formed the eastern boundary of Paganhill tithing, but the three highest, Rock, Grove, and Salmon's mills, were all in Painswick parish under which they are treated. Stratford Mill, the lowest on the stream, was part of Edward STRATFORD's estate at his death in 1607 and was then a fulling-mill in the tenure of Thomas MERRET. In 1627 Edward's grandson John STRATFORD leased the mill to Giles DAVIS of Stroud, mercer; the property then included a messuage, grist-mill, tuck-mill, and 4 racks for broadcloth. It was presumably the fulling-mill which belonged to the owner of the Stratford estate, Giles GARDNER, clothier, in 1688. In 1735 Stratford Mill was occupied by William LITTLE, a baker. In 1838, and apparently by 1820, it was owned by John BIDDELL (d. 1863). In 1872 it was an extensive flour-mill powered by steam and water and working 21 pairs of stones.  It was later worked by the firm of BUTT & SKURRAY, and then by KEMBLE & DASH who sold it in 1901 to R. TOWNSEND & Son, corn, cake, seed, and manure merchants. TOWNSENDs, who were absorbed by RANKS, HOVIS, MCDOUGALL Ltd. in 1962, employed c. 90 people at Stratford Mill in 1971, when they specialized in the production of seed-corn. 

Upper Vatch Mill

On the Slad brook, where it formed the western boundary of the main portion of Stroud parish, nine mills have been found recorded, of which four (one at the confluence with the Elcombe brook, and Hazel, Wade's, and Peghouse mills) are treated above as part of Painswick parish. The highest mill in Stroud, Upper Vatch Mill, was named as a paper-mill in 1824 and had presumably been occupied by Francis CHAPMAN, paper-maker of 'Vatch Mill', who was mentioned in 1776, and by William WARD, described as late a paper-maker at Vatch Mills in 1794. It is likely, however, that Upper Vatch Mill was used as a cloth-mill from before 1824 and that it can be identified with the mill with fulling-stocks at Vatch owned and occupied by Edward MASON in 1822. Upper Vatch Mill was rebuilt in 1830, and in 1833, when the ground floor was used for fulling by water-power and the upper floors housed weaving-shops, it was owned and worked with Vatch and Peghouse Mills by N. S. MARLING. The mill was disused by 1882, and the building had been demolished by 1901. In 1971, apart from the remains of pond and race, the site contained a pair of derelict 17th-century cottages and a later cottage, also derelict.

Vatch Mill / Clissold's Mill

Vatch Mill, a short way downstream at the confluence of the Slad brook and a small tributary, was apparently the mill at Vatch which the CLISSOLD family held for many years. The name Veyseies Mill later applied to the Clissolds' mill suggests that it was the one on Over Lypiatt manor where Walter le VEYSIN was crushed to death c. 1287 while greasing the wheel; a Veisyns Mill was recorded in 1351. The Clissolds' mill was later identified with that on Over Lypiatt manor in which the ZELAM family were tenants in 1516. In 1592 the lord of the manor sold a grist-mill at Vatch called Veyseies Mill to Thomas CLISSOLD, who held it in 1612. In 1656 it belonged to Mrs. CLISSOLD, a widow, and Thomas CLISSOLD of Vatch Mill died in 1697. In 1724 another Thomas CLISSOLD held the mill, described as Fetch or Veyseies Mill. A dwelling-house and fulling-mill called Vatch Mill were advertized for letting in 1768. By 1811 Vatch Mill was occupied by Henry WYATT, who remained there in 1822. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1827, and in 1833, powered by 3 steam-engines and 2 water-wheels, it was the chief factory of N. S. MARLING's group of mills on the Slad brook. In 1838 MARLING installed 6 powerlooms at Vatch where he also had 55 handlooms. By 1842 Vatch Mill was owned by William FLUCK, and, although in the same year he planned to remove two steam-engines from the mill because they were no longer used, he was still making cloth there in 1856. In 1863 and 1870 Robert HASTINGS was making cloth at Vatch Mill and his firm put it up for sale in 1877. By 1901 the mill buildings had been demolished, leaving only a row of workmen's cottages and the Gothic-style Vatch House.

Slad Mill

By 1820 a small mill, named as Slad Mill in 1824, had been built on the tributary which meets the Slad brook at Vatch Mill. It stood just above Slad Lane, and may at one time have been worked in conjunction with Vatch Mill, for it was owned by N. S. MARLING in 1842. Both the building and millpond had gone by 1882.

New Mill

New Mill, further down the Slad brook near the town, was apparently a fulling-mill by 1685. It was occupied by Thomas BAYLIS at his death in 1754, and a large new house, the north end of which included a mill, was built on the site by another Thomas BAYLIS in 1766; it formed a rough E-shape on plan with a long main block, flanking wings, and a central porch, and had decorative classical details. On Thomas's death in 1799 New Mill passed to his son Daniel, who went bankrupt in 1812. By 1820 part of the mill was owned and occupied by Robert and William HELME and another part by John PARTRIDGE whose tenant was Daniel PAPPS, and in 1833, by which time steam-power had been introduced, William HELME was making kerseymeres, buffs, whites, scarlets, and blacks there. HELME still owned and occupied the whole or part of the mill in 1842.  In 1863 Charles HOWARD was a cloth-manufacturer there, and from 1864 the mill was worked by John LIBBY, who had bought it in 1862 and was already established in Stroud as partner in a firm of cloth-factors. Libby died in 1894, and in 1897 his trustees agreed to sell the mill to Marcus CARTRIGHT, but cloth-making continued at New Mill under the style of LIBBY, EDMONDS, & Co. until at least 1902. From 1912 until the late 1920s it was occupied by the Gloucester Model Laundry Ltd. From 1949 it was occupied by Balbik Systems Ltd., specialist printers; the firm was acquired in 1970 by Burroughs Machines Ltd., which employed c. 120 people at New Mill in 1971 in printing stationery used in computers and accounting machines. Part of the south-eastern wing of Thomas BAYLIS's building was demolished before 1936  but the remainder survived in 1971 surrounded by modern buildings.

Little Mill

Little Mill, situated in Lansdown, was a fulling-mill in 1755 when the property, described as the mills behind the church, was owned by Thomas RODWAY, clothier, who had bought it from Thomas SHEPPARD. RPDWAY sold the mill in 1756 to Thomas BAYLIS of New Mill. On BAYLIS's death in 1799 his trustees sold it to Benjamin COOKE (d. c. 1801). COOKE's property was divided among his seven children, of whom Elizabeth married the Revd. John WILLIAMS, who between 1813 and 1822 bought up the shares of the other six children. In 1839, however, WILLIAMS sold the mill back to two of Benjamin's daughters, Esther and Mary COOKE, who were the owners in 1850. Part of the mill, which was called Little Mill by 1813, was converted to a grist-mill before 1799, but in 1820 Samuel WEDDALL was making cloth there and it was described as a fulling-mill in 1850. In 1856, however, it was being used as a saw-mill by William RIDLER & Son and by 1863 it was a corn-mill occupied by James OCKFORD, whose family worked it until the 1890s. In 1904 Little Mill was a cabinet-works.  The mill building had been demolished by 1971 and only a small stone cottage remained at the site.

Badbrook Mill

Badbrook Mill on the Slad brook in Merrywalks was in existence by 1651 when it was described as newly erected. With a house called Badbrook House it then belonged to Robert HAWKER, a dyer, who devised it at his death c. 1653 to his wife Judith. By 1666 it had passed to Richard HAWKER, apparently Robert's son, and by 1673, when it comprised two fulling-mills and a gig-mill, to Richard's son William who sold it in 1678 to Robert HAWKER of Rodborough, dyer. Robert's widow Deborah settled it in 1704 on the marriage of her son Robert, who sold it in 1730 to William COLE of Wallbridge. In 1733 the property included a newly-erected dwelling-house and adjoining it a fulling-mill, a corn-mill, and a dyehouse; by then it was known as Little Mill and it was presumably the mill of that name where the clothiers and workmen instituted fines for swearing in 1753. William Cole leased the mill to Thomas COLBORNE in 1736, and in 1739 sold it to John FOWLER, a mercer of Minchinhampton; in 1763 Fowler's mother Rebecca and his brother Richard sold the mill to Samuel Butt, blue-dyer.  It was later acquired by Thomas HOLBROW, a dyer, who also worked some dye-houses upstream from the mill by the Stroud-Painswick road, formerly occupied by a Mr. WINDOWE. In 1810 Thomas HOLBROW made Badbrook Mill and a newly-erected house adjoining over to his son John, but Thomas apparently was again the owner and occupier in 1820. It was worked as a cloth-mill by the firm of PAPPS & SITLINGTON until their bankruptcy in 1837. In 1856 it was being worked as a corn-mill by Daniel WOOD and BUTT & SKURRAY were the tenants in 1863. It was described as disused in 1882,  but it was probably the flour-mill at Badbrook which was worked by steam- and water-power in the following years. It was disused in 1936, and the mill and adjoining house were demolished in 1960.

Cuttle's Mill

The lowest mill on the Slad brook was Cuttle's Mill at Wallbridge on a site bounded on the southeast by the main road out of Stroud and on the north, after the 1780s, by the Thames and Severn canal. A house called Cuttle's, evidently at the site, was recorded as a free tenancy of Over Lypiatt manor from 1527.  The mill had been built by 1709 when Thomas SMITH sold it to John COLE, a sheargrinder. On John's death c. 1718 administration of his goods was granted to his daughter Elizabeth, but his son Richard was said to have succeeded him in Cuttle's Mill by 1724,  and in 1733 the house adjoining belonged to another son William. At the latter date the mill was apparently being used as dyehouses. By 1779 Cuttle's Mill had passed to Peter WATTS, a dyer, by his marriage to Diana COLE,  and his sons Richard and Edward WATTS were dyers at Wallbridge in 1820.  In 1850 the mill, by then a grist-mill, was acquired by John BIDDELL and c. 1870 it belonged to Sidney BIDDELL. It has not been found recorded later and may have ceased working after a serious fire in 1872. The house, which was demolished in 1970, was a traditional Cotswold-style building to which John COLE added a new road front in classical style in 1714.  An ornamental garden with a summer-house laid out by COLE north of the house was later encroached upon and destroyed piecemeal by the canal, road improvements, and buildings of the Stroud brewery. 
Three mills have been found recorded on the Lime brook which flows into the Frome at Bowbridge. A small mill, known as Weyhouse Mill, was included in the CLUTTERBUCK's portion of Nether Lypiatt manor in 1689; it was then a grist-mill in the tenure of Thomas PEARCE. In 1734 James CLUTTERBUCK leased it to Stephen POWER, a shear-grinder, and the lease was renewed to his son Stephen, who followed the same trade, in 1756. By 1842 the mill and a cottage adjoining had been demolished, and in 1971 there was nothing to identify the site beyond a broadening of the stream for the former mill-pond.

Gunnhouse / Newcombe's Mill

Further down the stream a small corn-mill was built on a close called Hanging Hill by a clothier Richard Fletcher, who lived at the Gunhouse near by. He sold it in 1728 to Richard PLUMMER, later of Burleigh, who at his death in 1769 devised it to his daughter Frances (d. 1785) with remainders to two married daughters, Ann JAMES and Elizabeth NIBLETT. Richard Plummer NIBLETT was in possession by 1794. By 1815 the mill had been demolished. 

Just below, on a site later bounded on the west by the new London turnpike, was a mill that came to be called Newcombe's Mill after an early-19thcentury owner. The site, called Manfield's Leaze, was bought by Thomas GARDNER, a millwright, in 1690, and he was building a mill there in 1692. In 1727 Thomas settled the mill, which was then a grist-mill, on the marriage of his son Stephen, a baker, who conveyed it, subject to a mortgage, to another Stephen GARDNER, a millwright, before 1748. By 1773 the mill had been converted to a leather-mill and was owned by Edward ENGLISH, a glover. Later it was acquired by a clothier, Thomas NEWCOMBE, who rebuilt it shortly before 1804 and was manufacturing cloth there in 1820. The mill was owned by Richard SANDYS in 1842, and c. 1870 it belonged to J. Y. SANDYS. Thomas SMITH was making cloth there in 1889,  but in 1901 it was an ironworks. APPERLY, BIDLAKE, & Co., recorded as cloth-merchants at Bowbridge between 1914 and 1931, occupied Newcombe's Mill, and in 1936 it was used as an upholstery works by Tyler's Ltd. of Griffin's Mill. It was burnt down during the Second World War and the site had been cleared by 1971.

Gussage Mill

There were several small mills on the Toadsmoor brook on the eastern boundary of the parish. Those known as Toadsmoor Mills are treated above under Bisley. Gussage Mill, further down the brook at Lower Bourne, was presumably the 'Gusshis Mill' which Roger FOWLER left to his wife Joan in 1540, to pass on her death or remarriage to his son Thomas (FOWLER), who occupied it in 1559 when he was described as a clothier or tucker. In 1653 Thomas FREAME, lord of Nether Lypiatt manor, leased a messuage, tuck mill, and grist-mill called the Gushies, formerly occupied by Thomas Fowler, to the clothier Walter SEWELL, and a mill called Lower Gussage Mill was assigned to the WINDOWES at the partition of the manor in 1689. In 1813 Gussage Mill was owned or occupied by W. WINN, and in 1842 it was owned by James TAYLOR and occupied by William ANTHILL. William DANGERFIELD later had a wood-turnery there but by 1856 it was occupied by a silk-throwing business in which he was a partner. By 1870 it housed Richard GRIST & Co., mattress-wool, mill-puff, and shoddy manufacturers, who were replaced in the 1930s by a firm of wood-turners. The small early-19th-century stone mill remained a turnery in 1971.

Lewiston Mill

A new brick mill called Lewiston Mill, further down the brook just north of the London road, was built by GRIST & Co. in 1856 and extended in 1864. The firm, which after the death of Richard GRIST c. 1892 was carried on by the brothers Lawrence and Richard Lewis GRIST, continued in business at Lewiston Mill until 1939 or later. From 1969 a subsidiary of Bensons International, carrying out a plastic-coating process, occupied the mill. 
The lowest mill on the Toadsmoor brook, south of the London road, was called Bourne Mill like the mill on the Frome further west. In 1784 it was a grist-mill and formed part of Peter Leversage's Dark Mill estate, but in 1813 it was occupied by T. HOWELL, presumably Thomas HOWELL, the cloth manufacturer at Griffin's Mill. By 1870 it was a sawmill worked by John ESSEX, who had the building firm of Wall & Hook as his under-tenants in 1872, in which year the George family sold the mill to Richard GRIST, the flock-maker. From 1877 until c. 1930 it was worked as a saw-mill by the PHILPOTTS family. From 1940 the site was occupied by the Olympic Varnish Co. which moved there from Enfield (Mdx.) under an industry dispersal scheme; the firm rebuilt and extended their premises in 1948, and in 1971 employed c. 30 people in coating and water-proofing fibre-board for use in the car, travel goods, and electricity industries.

Ebley Mill

Records show a mill here as early as 1393. It was a good site as the river provided the full power of the combined Stroud and Nailsworth streams. There is now almost no trace of the site, or the river loop on which it was built. It ran between the present mill and Cainscross Road, where industrial buildings now stand.

The mill was part of a 30 acre estate which was divided in the 15th and 16th centuries between two absentee owners. Both corn grinding and the fulling of cloth was done on the site, a common arrangement at the time. In 1505 the BENNETT family became tenants of the mill and their descendants still owned Ebley at the end of the 18th century. In 1587 Ebley Court was built by Thomas BENNETT. William SELWYN married the BENNETT heiress and the initials of his grandson William can be seen above a window of the Glue Shed. Its position is fortuitous. In the 1780s it formed the lintel of the garden gate of Ebley Court. Already there was no explanation for its presence as his home was Matson House and there is no obvious event to mark; though he later became Governor of Jamaica. In about 1950 workmen who were restoring the building found the stone in the nettles and initially inserted it upside down. The TURNER family were tenants of the estate from about 1685 to 1788. They worked the mill as clothiers. A survey of 1744 recorded the freestone mansion house, an outhouse used as a dyehouse and the mill with four fulling stocks and a teasel raising gig. There was a newly built corn mill adjoining. The decline of the mill began with the building of the canal. This cut across the river, forcing the moving of the weir and the creation of a new waste channel. Part of the mill pond was also filled in so perhaps it is not surprising that in 1788 Thomas TURNER went bankrupt. Within a few years Stephen CLISSOLD was the tenant and in 1799 he bought the mill for £1908. The Long Mill: For most of his time at Ebley CLISSOLD accepted the historic layout of the site. He may have built early weaving sheds, but they were close to the Old Mill and Ebley Court. It was only after the profitable years of the French wars that he began his great new building, as a number of other clothiers did. By then the canal was busy and there are suggestions that he had profited from improvements to cloth finishing. The new mill was built between about 1818 and 1820, to the south of the old mill. It was a simple building architecturally, with its rows of arched mullion windows. Blocked windows show that he built only the Long Mill. However it was massive for the time; matched in size only by nearby Stanley Mill. It is one of the new generation of wide bodied mills which continued the tradition of being rectangular but which was almost twice as wide as mills of the previous century. Ebley Mill was sold before the New Mill was completed; even building materials were included in the sale. Apparently it stood empty until 1825 when the new owners took over. They were two cloth merchants in London and leased the mill to J.F.MARLING. It is from his reports that we learn what CLISSOLD had initiated. CLISSOLD had bought seven acres on the south side of the river. These were now flooded and a weir was built across the waste channel, which became the main stream. The weir created a 6 foot fall of water which was run under the mill to drive waterwheels. It is unclear how many there were originally but later there were five each with a diameter of 16 feet. These were housed in the ground floor along with the fulling stocks and the gig mills. The wheels generated 80 h.p. but despite the mill pond there tended to be a shortage of water in the summer. The water then ran out to the west side of the mill, where the approach road now is. Effectively the mill had become a bridge over a complex water system. MARLING was producing superfine cloth and kerseymeres. He concentrated the whole process of production on site. The Old Mill was used for scouring the raw wool. 71 handlooms were housed in a neighbouring building. Probably the New Mill housed the processes like carding and spinning that could benefit from waterpower. Children aged seven or more were employed at the carding machines, doing a 10-hour day. The attic floor might have been used for checking and mending the cloth, as good light was needed for this job. In 1837 JF MARLING went bankrupt and in 1840 his younger brothers Thomas and Samuel Stephens MARLING bought the mill. They invested heavily in it, continuing the process of modernisation that CLISSOLD began. Steam power was introduced. Probably they built the tall pedimented block which appears in SMITH's painting, and a wall was erected along the towpath to give the mill privacy. Meanwhile the old mill was demolished and the Greenaways block was erected at some point before the 1880s when it was the spinning block. Thomas left in 1842 but SS MARLING built up Ebley, with a growing number of partners, into one of the major mills in the area. New machinery such as larger carding machines would explain the introduction of cast iron pillars. By 1862, when MARLINGs won a medal at the International Exhibition for their black and blue cloths, doeskins and cassimeres, 800 were employed at Ebley. Hundreds more were employed at Stanley Mill, bought in 1854. The Bodley Block: One of the buildings constructed by the MARLINGs was a tall building that backed on to the Long Block. Decorated with a pedimented front it repeated the style of windows that Clissold had used but provided space for steam power. So a tall chimney was built next to it. Despite his success MARLING had his share of disasters. In 1852 a hole, five storeys high and 20 feet wide, was blown in the front wall of the pedimented block. In 1859 the same block was destroyed by a massive fire which caused £20,000 worth of damage. CLISSOLD's Mill emerged unscathed and CF BODLEY, who had just been employed to build Selsley Church, was commissioned to reconstruct the ruins. Bodley's Block reflects the need for better light and higher ceilings that was demanded by the new machinery and so is in marked contrast to the preceding mill. There is no information of what it was used for except that on the ground floor it housed a steam engine using the chimney. Possibly the external boiler house was erected to provide a safer location away from the machinery. The impressive staircase turret was fireproof and passage between the two blocks was restricted to it. When Sir SS MARLING died in 1883 his son, Sir William HENRY, undertook considerable re-organisation, making Stanley the centre of his operations. Parts of the property that remained close to the main road were leased off and it was proposed to lease the Greenaways Mill to a worsted spinning operation. After 1920 this block was sold to a printer, Frederick STEEL, who was already the tenant. Meanwhile the head office was moved to Stanley. Increasingly the company produced worsteds which were selling better than woollen cloth. In 1920 the partnership of MARLING and EVANS was formed, without any members of the Marling family. This company managed to survive the Depression. In the late 1930s Ebley was the carding and spinning department for Stanley Mill. There were spinning mules on each floor of the Long Block, including the attic. On the ground floor, in 1936, the last waterwheel, perhaps the largest in the area, survived, yoked to a steam engine in the Bodley Block. However in 1938 Ebley was switched to electric power, and the wheel and steam engine were soon scrapped though the back brook continued to run along the west of the mill. In the Bodley Block there was the steam engine, dating from about 1840, on the ground floor but the rest of the floors were filled with carding machinery. During the war Ebley was again producing all stages of cloth, army shirting as well as apparel cloth for men and women, as Stanley was requisitioned. It was apparently very busy but in 1945 it returned to its role as a spinning mill. At Ebley there was heavy investment in machinery. The first high speed mule in the world was installed and improved by the mill engineers. The mules were housed in the long mill from the first floor up. By now on the ground floor all evidence of the water wheels was removed and carding machines were housed, as on the ground floor of the Bodley Block. Its attic was used for storage while there was spinning on the floors below. In the 1960s the mules here were replaced by spinning frames, which dealt with the synthetics. On the first floor and over the gate the yarn was coned in preparation for return to Stanley by lorry. Dyed material for carding and spinning was delivered from Stanley and a great variety of colours as well as different fibres, were being produced. The mill was a busy, and, by report, a happy place. However the shortage of capital for investment, competition and the depression caused the mill to close in 1981 and the production of high quality apparel cloth was centred on Stanley. The derelict mill enjoyed brief fame when it was used for the shooting of the 1986 Pirelli calendar! In 1986, the empty Mill was purchased by Stroud District Council, for conversion into new, centralised offices. The building was fully opened in 1990. The Glue Shed : Very little is known of the building's history or original use. Mid-Victorian in origin, it had external staircases. From physical evidence, it originally had 3 storeys; probably up to when it was gutted by fire (date unknown). The first and second floors were heated by open fires, suggesting that the ground floor had no use other than storage. The lintel above the rectangular first floor window bears the initials WS. William SELWYN was the grandson of another William SELWYN, who married into the BENNETT family, owners of the site and builders of the Tudor Ebley Court. It is known that in 1780, the lintel was positioned over a garden gate at the Court. It was then found in 1950, abandoned in nettles, by builders working on the Glue Shed. The name Glue Shed originated during the Second World War. The then little known firm Borden was relocated to part of the Ebley Mills site in 1940 to escape the bombing of London's East End. Its work included the manufacture of high performance adhesives used in the construction of wooden aircraft. The actual role of the Glue Shed itself is not known. The firm left Stroud in 1947 and settled in Romsey, where it has subsequently become world famous.

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