Uley Mills

Introduction

By the middle of the sixteenth century, the cloth industry was migrating away from the older Gloucestershire wool-towns, such as Cirencester and Chipping Campden, to the valleys lying at the foot of the Cotswold escarpment. Here there were swiftly flowing streams, rising from the beds of lias clay underlying the oolite limestone, which could supply the growing industry with the water-power it needed to work the fulling mills that felted the cloth fibres. Around Uley, there are many natural springs, which flow and join to make the River Ewelme. This flows westwards through the valley to towards Dursley to join the larger River Cam. In early times, this provided settlers with clear drinking water, but as industry grew, it provided a constant source of water to the wool weavers and to the production of local beer, as demand for this increased via population growth.

The high humidity and rainy conditions allowed the area’s soil to produce Fullers Earth, which was used to degrease the sheep’s wool entering the mills, so all the elements to support the wool industry existed around Uley. The Stroud and Dursley areas became synonymous with quality textiles, with Berkeley Yellow, Stroud Scarlet and Uley Blue being highly prized in the making of regimental and school uniforms. Most people will have heard of bluecoats and redcoats in relation to the usage of the cloth. In the Uley Valley, mills stretched from Owlpen in the east to Rockstowes in the west and below are notes pertaining to the more important mills. The order of the mills follow the course of the River Ewelme.

Owlpen Grist Mill

This is one of the outbuildings of the Owlpen Manor Estate and was located just 100 yards from the main manor house. This mill was used for corn grinding and is one of the few mills in the area that had no connection with the cloth trade. Grist is grain that has been separated from its chaff in preparation for grinding. It can also mean grain that has been ground at a gristmill. It had a long & useful working life until it was converted to pump water to the now demolished Victorian mansion known as Owlpen Park which stood higher up the valley. The mill dates from 1726, but was rebuilt by Thomas Daunt. It is currently a holiday cottage.

Sheppards Mill

This was the largest woollen mill in the Uley Valley. During part of the 18^th century this mill was occupied by John Holbrow and then by his nephew Thomas Maule. In 1789 Edward Sheppard & Henry Hicks took out a 10-year lease on the property and by 1833, 30 mill buildings existed. At its peak, over 1,000 people were employed. In 1837 Edward Sheppard became bankrupt due to the collapse of the local woollen industry as production moved to Yorkshire and Lancashire because of more efficient mechanisation using larger machines. The site was sold and became an iron foundry when Richard Clyburn was producing agricultural implements. In 1852 the premises were leased to Thomas & Henry Lusty, wood turners & timber dealers. The only buildings now surviving are Nos.1 & 29 on the l838 tithe map (the Press House and the Scouring House) and the mill itself is now a residential dwelling.

Dauncey's Manufactory.

This was located almost due east of Sheppard’s Mill, close to today’s B4066 road, and some way north of the River Ewelme. A sale bill of 1814 described this as a newly erected building consisting of five storeys and used in the clothing manufactory with a shed for a horse-wheel and a small paddock of pasture land adjacent. However, in 1841 the building was owned by George Dauncey and was producing whip-tops and beer barrel bungs. The building was latter occupied by Elliott's building company and in 1991 was redeveloped for residential use.

Dauncey's Mill.

This mill dates from 1689. In 1784 the mill was occupied by Richard Blagdon, clothier. In 1811 the property was leased by the Rev. Wiliam Lloyd Baker to Nathaniel & Daniel Lloyd for 21 years at £160 per annum. At that time it was a fulling mill, a gig mill, a factory, dye houses, stoves & other buildings. In 1828, the property was leased to George & James Dauncey at £250 per annum during which time a steam engine was installed. However, cloth production ceased by the 1840's and the mill became a saw mill. The l838 Tithe Map shows the site to have been larger. A round wool drying stove, in ruins, can still be seen about half-way along the mill pond. The water wheel has been restored together with the pond and the flood gates. The mill itself is now a residential dwelling. Very close by was Jackson’s Mill, about which very little is known.

Scouring House.

The building was just below the sheep dip at the crossroads junction at the western end of the village. It was used for wool washing and was shared by Nathaniel Lloyd, Joseph Jeens & Edward Jackson Blackwell. In 1822 it was leased to William Hinton of Uley. The site is now occupied by a domestic garage belonging to The Manse residential property.

Marsh Mill

Just to the south-west of the Scouring House, we come to Marsh Mill. This was occupied by George Adey from 1814 to about 1830. By 1838 only part of the mill was working and was occupied by Samuel Smith. Its value fell from £181 in 1831 to £50 in1838 and although it was one of the last mills to work in Uley, cloth production finally ceased by the early 1840's. The mill was burnt down in1911. A few ruins remain including the pond wall, mill race and wheel pit, some gearing and part of the water-wheel survived until 1975 but have since been removed. The 'factory' shown on the tithe map survived and now a domestic dwelling.

Jeen's Factory.

This is shown on the tithe map as 'factory owned by Henry Moreland Jeens' and is a short distance due north of Marsh Mill. Henry Moreland Jeens began manufacturing in Stroud before coming to Uley and opening a new mill in 1828. Initially it flourished, but in keeping with most of the Uley Valley mills, it succumbed to the overall decline and the owner was declared bankrupt in February 1842.

Angeston Workshops.

To the north-west of Jeen’s factory, under the shadow of Uley Bury is Angeston Grange. Part of the house had been converted into workshops by 1795. They included wool lofts, a press shop, a spinning shop, a shear shop, weaving shop, sizing loft and a shearing shop etc. The only existing reminder of these activities is the rack ground behind Angeston Grange where the cloth was stretched and dried on tenter racks. The owners were Nathaniel & Daniel Lloyd, who mortgaged the property to William Walker of Tetbury. When the Lloyds got into financial difficulties in 1826, they sold the contents of the workshops.

Rockstowes Mill.

Moving due south from Angeston and back to the Ewelme River, we come to Rockstowes Mill This was run by William Phelps of Dursley during the period 1790 to 1800. It is likely that the mill was owned by the Went family and that Edward Jackson either bought it or inherited it from his mother. Edward Jackson was born in 1770. In 1805 he bought Shibley Field directly opposite the mill so owning land on either side of the Uley-to-Dursley Road. He steadily increased the mill complex by adding extra dye-houses and by 1816 he had his first steam engine. However, by 1819, he was declared bankrupt and in 1825 it was finally offered for sale.

Since the demise of the wool trade, it has been used in a variety of ways such as a water-driven corn mill and water-driven saw mill. For a time, it housed the Rockstowes Dairy Factory, which produced dairy and agricultural equipment. The special machines included the Alpha Cream Separator. Latterly it became a hat making concern and also produced protective clothing such as sleeves & aprons for glass blowers. The main mill and the blue mill have now been demolished, but the wool warehouse and the buildings which comprised two houses with jenny lofts above remain as houses to the north east of the mill pond.

Eyles Mill (Wresden)

The most westerly of the Uley Valley mills was Eyles Mill. In 1566 it was owned by Giles Browning who operated a Corn Mill driven by a water wheel. In 1600 Thomas Browning who was a weaver began making cloth. In 1665 John Eyles, from Belgium, became the owner and in 1677, he was selling Spanish cloth to Levant merchant Jacob Turner. High in St. Giles Church is a plaque to John Eyles the 'first that ever made Spanish cloth in the parish'. After the death of Eyles the business was carried on by his nephew, John Bayley, but soon the mill ceased to produce cloth probably because of competition from the larger northern mills. The small two-storey mill was one of the oldest in Gloucestershire. When John Bayley died he was succeeded by his grandson, John Phillimore, thus this family from Cam owned the mill until 1928 when it was purchased by the Rymers. Today, Wresden Farm shows an Eyle's wool mark above the entrance.

Closure

Those who worked in the mills at the height of local textile production received a good weekly wage of around 42 shillings (£2.10). This compares to the average farm wage for the area of around 9 shillings (0.81 pence) per week. However, when Yorkshire started to produce cloth from about 1820 onwards, the average millworker take-home pay fell sharply to 7 shillings (0.35 pence) per week and widespread poverty became rife. By 1838 over 80% of the Uley residents were impoverished and the population began to dwindle, leaving around 200 dwellings empty. People moved away to the coal and iron production sites in the Forest of Dean and in South Wales. The more adventurous and free-spirited opted for Canada and Australia.

Written by Margaret Groom & Richard Furness