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Newsletter 146 Autumn 2024 © Hampshire Mills Group |
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Reports on two events in one day - 8 June 2024
Members meeting at Bere Mill
Sherfield-on-Loddon Fete
Keith Andrews |
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About 20 members met at
Bere Mill, Whitchurch, by kind permission of the
owner Rupert Nabarro.
Rupert gave a short
talk about the mill. The Portals, Huguenot refugees
from France, leased the mill in the early 18th
century for paper making. They later moved the
operation to a new location in Laverstoke, and later
to a large newly built factory in Overton, where
paper making continued until earlier this year.
Meanwhile Bere Mill went over to corn milling. In
1904 a Gilkes Landheer turbine was installed – one
of only about 30 made, and now the last remaining –
to generate electricity for the paper mill at
Laverstoke 2 miles away.
Rupert bought the
mill in 1994; by 1997 the electricity generation
was not working but Rowley Eastman, son of the
installer of the original turbine, was hoping to get
it going again. He did, but it proved very noisy
and also it caused a lot of silt in the river,
resulting in complaints from the owner of the
fishing rights, so it was abandoned. Below the mill
there had been extensive water meadows, which Rupert
tried to put in use again. Once again there were
complaints – the usual one about “taking my water” –
so that was also abandoned.
In 2017 came the
disastrous fire that destroyed the mill and much of
the house and the generator, and broke the mill
machinery, but the turbine survived. The house and
mill have been rebuilt to a very high standard, and
the machinery has been reconstructed. However, the
generator has not been replaced: there are just the
holes in the wall for the belt drive remaining.
Rupert commented on how helpful the planning
authorities had been. Tony Kirkby who, with John
Christmas, had been doing the reconstruction of the
machinery, gave some details of the work; all is
now good, except that he can’t get the turbine to
turn, despite applying significant force!
After tea and cake,
we were able to look round the mill and the splendid
gardens.
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The mill straddling the River Test
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View upstream from the mill
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The tailrace
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The rebuilt mill |
The wheels with the turbine below |
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The cast iron sluice control wheels |
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Sherfield-on-Loddon Fete, 8 June 2024
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In
response to a request from HMG member Ian Deeprose
of the Sherfield History Group – who have a major
interest in Longbridge Mill – Ivor New, Ruth
Andrews, and I took the HMG display to
Sherfield-on-Loddon fete to support them. This is a
reworked reduced-size version of the display to fit
on HMG’s display boards that were bought in memory
of Mary Yoward, while the original large display
from HRO was still at Eling Tide Mill.
The
history group’s stall mostly featured items from
Longbridge; in particular the hand quern which
attracted lots of children to have a go – for the
reward of a cookie!
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The new HMG display and Sherfield History Group’s
stall
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