WATER MILL PRIMARY SCHOOL 'Anything is Possible'
Harbourne Mill
Harborne is first mentioned as having a mill in the Domesday Book in 1086.
We know that a mill existed on the site close to the school next to what is now Harborne Lane before 1554 and the names of its tenants are known right through to the 20th century.
In 1788 when Thomas Green mortgaged the mill to Catherine Blakeman it was listed as a grinding and boring mill. It had previously been a corn mill. It was a wire mill in 1819 and an iron mill by 1831/32. In Joseph Davis’s will of 1841 it was again a flourmill. It was occupied by Thomas Millington, steel pen manufacturer, by 1863 and called a steel mill in the 1880s. It continued to be owned by Millington and Co. in 1908.
The buildings were still standing in the 1950s but mainly demolished early in the 1960s, although part still stands today in 2010.
The mill pond was between the mill and Mill Farm and is now the site of a petrol station.
Sale Document
Copy of part of a sale document for Harborne Mill from 1605.
Translation of sale document
Valuation Document
Parts of a valuation document for the property of Joseph Davis of Harborne Mill in 1841
Translation
Valuation of household furnishing, stock in trade, Machinery and other …The property of the late Joseph Davis of Harbourne Mill in the parish of Harbourne and the county of Stafford. Taken for administration, this 20th day of november 1851 effects at Harbourne Mill in the county of Stafford. Six pairs of pillowcases, six pairs of bolsters, six pairs of… Suit of black, Greatcoat, Macintosh, two pairs of breachers, three pairs of shoes, 5 pairs of stockings, 7 shirts, Neckerchief,
Kitchen
8-day clock, six chairs… round table, 1 corner cot, 1 leaf table, warming pan, 4 brass candle sticks and feet, firescreen, bellows, winder and fireirons, dutch ovens, iron pot, saucepan, copper kettle, oak cupboard, candle box, tinder, frying pan, yorkman, gun and pistol and 4 candle sticks. All of this stuff and the mill building came to a valuation of £741.
Translated by Yr 6, 2010
Owners and tenants of Harborne Mill
| Name | Date leased or bought | Use |
| John Tottyl | ||
| Ralph Warley | 1554 | Woollen Mill |
| William Birch | ||
| John Birch | ||
| George Birch | 1558 | |
| William Holmes (Owner) | ||
| Edward Bowyer (Tenant) | ||
| Roger Stanley (Owner) | 1605 | Cacock’s Mill |
| Edward Rotherham | ||
| Charles Stanley | ||
| John Darley | 1650 | |
| William Collins & Thomas White | ||
| Edward Jordan | 1749 | Gunsmith / Steel |
| Thomas Jordan and his 3 daughters | ||
| Basil Hunt (tenant) | Gunsmith | |
| Hugh Edwards (owner) | ||
| Thomas Green | 1786 | Cornmill |
| Catherine Blackman | 1788 | Grinding and Boring Mill |
| Theodore Price (Owner) | Wire Mill | |
| Thomas Green Simcox | 1819 | |
| Joseph Davies (tenant) | 1819 | Wire Mill Iron mill |
| Samuel Davies | 1841 | Flour Mill |
| Thomas Millington | 1908 | Steel Mill Pen making |
Researched by Yr 6, 2010
