Arbury Mill

1 Arbury Mill. Much of the present mill building appears to date from the construction of the Arbury Park canal system from 1764 onwards but there are vestiges of an earlier twin-gabled stone building encased in the present brick building. The internal high breast-shot waterwheel measures 5.5m diameter by 1.2m wide but little other machinery survives.
2 Sir Roger Newdegate commenced building the canal system around Arbury Hall in 1764. The mill must have been erected at about this time. It was certainly in existence by 1787. Information exists on ownership for the C19. After ceasing work, all the machinery except the waterwheel was removed, and the building became a cattle shed. Restoration was proposed in 1976. The brick building dates from the C18. It shows signs of many alterations. It may be that an existing building was converted into a mill when the canal system was built. The section of the canal which fed the wheel is now virtually dry.
3 This may be George Eliot’s ‘Mill on the Floss’.
4 Survey undertaken in advance of proposed demolition. Three main phases: 1, pre 1760s, a single-storey M-shaped barn; 2, c1764, a brick mill incorporating the W half of this barn; 3, addition of a late Victorian brick store or barn on the E.
5 Drawing included in survey, ref 4.
6 Description of the mill complex.