Features - Loweswater Mill and the Mill Hill Estate.

Loweswater's Corn Mill

The site of the Lord's corn mill at Loweswater has long been a mystery, because it ceased to work in the late eighteenth century and appears on no maps. More recently a copy of an old plan of the Mill Hill estate has been found which has allowed the history of the mill and the Mill Hill estate to be established. This page contains images which support an article in Journal 58 'An old plan of Mill Hill estate: Loweswater's corn mill portrayed'.

The first image is a scanned copy of the plan photocopy in the Society's archive. South is at the top of the page. The original is unknown. It is of the Mill Hill estate in Loweswater and dated to around 1790. The disused mill was freehold, having been purchased from the lord of the manor of Loweswater, and the rest of the estate was held from the lord of the manor, according to the customs of the manor. It contained the old tenement of Mill Hill, plus Steel Bank, Stockbridge and part of Bargate, which contained the old fulling mill. The owner was Jane Head of High Cross.

The second image is a general plan of the area at the time, plus relevant changes before and after. Again south is at the top. The third image is an overlay of the field or close boundaries on the Google satellite image of the area, showing the mill and its leat and demonstrating the accuracy of the survey, which was likely to have been made by Thomas Donald.

Descent of the Mill and the Mill Hill estate.

The lord's corn mill and the Mill Hill farm tenement were different properties before being combined into one estate in the late eighteenth century. The following image gives the histories of the families involved in creating the Mill Hill estate in the plan, starting with the small tenement of 1619, plus the descents of both the growing Mill Hill estate and the lord's corn mill from its sale in about 1766. This chart contains far more detail than coud be included in the chart in Journal 58.