Local Parishes
About Bedgreave Mill
The Domesday Book of 1086 refers to a mill on the river in the parish of Treeton. The Environment Agency document "Domesday to the dawn of the New Millenium : 900 Years of the Don Fishery", places the completion of Bedgreave Mill at around 1100 AD.
Melvyn Jones, in his book The Making of the South Yorkshire Landscape, states that the first water-powered mills, for grinding corn, were probably established in the 13th century. By the 16th century there were about 50 water powered industrial sites on Sheffields rivers.
White's Directory of 1833 tells us that the hamlet of Bedgreave was situated one mile west by south of Wales and a detached part, Waleswood , was in the Parish of Treeton
Completed around 1100 AD, Bedgreave Mill on the River Rother, was one of the first water powered operations on the Don System.
In 1631 the mill at Bedgreave was mentioned in a family settlement of the Darcy family. Little of its early history is known.
Bedgreave Mill is one example of a dam-site that used millstones from Stanage
We can see from Whites Directory of 1833 that George Rodgers Whitaker, was corn miller, at Bedgreave Mill.
In 1849 , Whites directory lists Joseph Stacey, as corn miller, at Bedgreave Mill
Isaac Fairburn was the miller in 1862
James Dawson was miller in 1879
Williamson Glover and Eleanor are recorded as corn millers in the village of Beighton in the 1881 census
Sheffield Archives mentions a Bedgrave Meadow at Beighton in 1910. Reference: SY/385/K127/1.
There is a building still surviving in Rother Valley Country Park, now called the "Old Mill", which consists of only four walls and lacking any remaining roof, which may be this original mill.
The existing mill probably dates from the 18th century and was built on the site of an earlier mill which records show existed in the early 1600s
In the 1890's a steam engine replaced the water wheel.
By the 1960's the mill was was derelict. It was restored in 1983 as a visitor centre after it was adopted by Rother Valley Country Park . Further additions were made in 1988 and there is now a display for visitors, of its' milling history.
Bedgreave Mill, Image Source© Rother Valley Country Park
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